The Kingfisher City Commission on Monday welcomed newly-hired City Manager Jim Thomas to his first meeting and voted 3-2 to proceed with the construction of a 20,000 square foot fire station.

Mayor Roxie Alexander and commissioners Debbie Burpo and Dawn Taylor voted for the $10 million fire station while Vice Mayor Geoff Covalt and Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg voted against it.

According to budget projections, the half-cent 10year sales tax voted on by the citizens of Kingfisher in May 2021 would only generate approximately $7.5 million in revenue to fund the project.

“I’m a numbers guy and I’m a budget guy,” Mecklenburg said. “There’s no way we know what the future holds, but we have our projections for what the tax will generate and what the city can afford.

“I am concerned that we will run into budget and funding problems down the road.”

Covalt added: “$7.5 million is what we can afford today with today’s numbers to go by. We have to consider the city budget overall. I think we should stay with the smaller square feet and make that work.

“There’s going to be other expenses such as furniture and many other items and we all know in this time of inflation that costs are going to rise.”

The vote came after a lengthy discussion following a presentation by Fire Chief Tony Stewart, who contended that a minimum of 20,000 square feet is “what we need, not what we want.”

“I get it. We don’t have the money,” Stewart said. “We’re gonna be short at the end. But the $10 million is the bare minimum of what we need.”

He said the city’s insurance rating was now at a “3” which is “very good.”

But with the 20,000 square foot facilities which would allow for the firefighters to house all equipment, vehicles and personnel in one structure, the efficiency of response time would be greatly enhanced, he said.

Stewart added the city’s residents and businesses would in the future have even greater savings on insurance costs with a “2” rating.

“Listen, we take care of our equipment. Our guys are proud of what they have and what they do,” Stewart said.

“We have a very dedicated crew here. We’re just asking that we give the city the best protection we possibly can. If we go with a less than a 20,000 square foot building, we’re going to start from the beginning with a new fire station that is too small for what’s required. The city’s going to grow.”

Wendell Prim, past city commissioner, also commented that he felt like the community would be in support of the 20,000 square foot facility.

“We have the hospital south of town that we continue to support with a sales tax. I think the people of the community would want a fire station that is built for what is needed now, with room for growth,” Prim said. “The faster the response time, the better the service and more lives that may be potentially saved.”

The vote ended several months of debate about the new building’s future, some of which took place at city meetings.

“We at the fire department are very excited for the citizens of Kingfisher that we can now move forward after months of robust debate,” Stewart told the Times & Free Press.

“It wasn’t a unanimous decision, but I was told that we can now move forward as a united group.

“We greatly appreciate the passage of last night’s vote as well as the passage of the orginal vote to build the new station.”

That May 2021 election saw Kingfisher voters approve the sales tax for the new station by a 159-66 count.

Following Monday’s split vote, Mecklenburg commented: “It’s been decided, so we will get behind this and make it work. We (city commissioners) all work together well and we all want what’s best for our community.”

City Attorney Jared Harrison said MA+ Architecture of Oklahoma City has now been asked to design a new fire station based on the 20,000 square feet, $10 million specifications.

In the city manager’s report portion of the meeting, Thomas commented that he arrived in town on Saturday and was currently living in a local hotel.

“I look forward to meeting the people of this community. I’ve already met quite a few,” he said. “Today was my first full day on the job and I am very impressed with the city’s staff and department managers. By all measurements, they seem dedicated and energetic. I think we can do wonderful things here and am very excited to now be on the job.”

In other business the commissioners approved the awarding of the low bid of $202,014.25 by MMS Construction of Kingfisher to begin work on a paving projects for the intersection of 13th Street and Will Rogers Avenue, Kingfisher Park and the city’s electric department.

Also approved was the purchase of $18,400 in aviation fuel for the airport and commissioners declined a request from the Department Of Corrections to make improvements to Memorial Hall.

Currently the DOC rents space at Memorial Hall for $500 per month and the request for improvements was more than the commissioners felt could be budgeted currently.

“I think we’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars to make the improvements asked for and we have more pressing needs at the moment,” Covalt said.

“I understand their concerns and we wish we could help them. I think if they want to find a better place, we would certainly allow them to do that whenever they wanted.”

“I’d love to go into Memorial Hall and make it what it could be again,” Alexander said. “It’s a building that’s over 100 years old. It’s a part of our history and, unfortunately, the city just doesn’t have the funds to go in there to do all the things required to do that.”

The next regular meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14.