Boyceville five-year planning committee makes scant progress on new firestation
By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Fire District’s five-year planning committee was unable to make much progress on assessing sites for a new fire station at their October 8 meeting.
A representative for Five Bugles Design failed to attend the meeting, leaving committee members with very little information to review.
After committee members had waited for about ten minutes, Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief, made a telephone call and then reported that the Five Bugles representative “forgot to put the meeting on the schedule.”
Five Bugles Design is the company that has been hired to assess the needs of the fire department and to produce a preliminary design for a new fire station in Boyceville.
Five Bugles has developed options for how a 90-foot by 140-foot fire station could fit on several different sites, Marlette said.
“We can’t pick this apart until we see a print,” said Rich Monn, chair of the Town of Staton and chair of the fire district’s five-year planning committee.
Two potential sites for a fire station have been identified on the north side of Boyceville on Nordveien Drive in the vicinity of Tiffany Creek Elementary and on the south side of Boyceville on state Highway 79 next to the BP gas station.
The area from BP east to the pulling track is owned by the village, noted Don Rose, director of public works.
Monn said he did not believe the site on Nordveien was appropriate for a fire station because it is a quiet residential area.
Rose pointed out that there are houses near the site on Highway 79, too, although when the houses were built, homeowners were required to get special permission to build there because the area is zoned commercial.
Monn wondered if the height of the proposed hose-drying tower would be a problem since the airport is so close to the site next to BP.
The tower would be used for drying fire hoses but also could be used for training exercises for firefighters.
“The drying tower would be great, but if it’s a deal breaker, then we’ll get around it,” Marlette said.
“We really cannot do anything until they come with the design of the building imposed on the sites,” Monn said.
The five-year planning committee agreed to meet after the Boyceville Fire District and the Boyceville Ambulance District meetings on October 15.
Marlette called the Five Bugles representative to make sure he could attend the October 15 meeting.
Marlette said he had been assured that the October 15 meeting had been put on the Five Bugles schedule.