Wollen Opposed to Moving Fire Dept. Up North

Kingman City Commissioner Jon Wollen, during Thursday’s city commission meeting, expressed opposition to a proposal to move the city’s fire department to the Koch building that is currently utilized by the city police department.

Wollen shared his thoughts during city commissioner comments toward the end of the meeting, He referred to discussion from City Manager Dan Knoell and the city commissioners at the May 14 meeting, for which neither he nor City Commissioner Merlin McFarland were present.

During the May 14 meeting, Knoell had suggested moving the fire department to the Koch building because a property along U.S. Highway 54/400 on Broadway Street wasn’t big enough to accommodate the fire department. His suggestion would call for moving the police department into the space the fire department currently utilizes in the city building downtown/

While Wollen said he understood the concerns about available space and the budgetary aspect of building a new fire station, when it came to the Koch building, “I think that’s the most asinine place on earth to put a fire station.”

He said that it would limit access to the north for the fire department because there is no road that goes directly to the north, along with limited access to the east because of the airport.

Wollen added it would take longer for many firefighters to get to the station if it was located up north.

He repeated his understanding about the budget concerns, but if the intent was to save money, it would be better to have the police department return to the county law enforcement center and leave the fire department where it is now.

“I found it astonishing that location wasn’t part of the thinking of this thing,” Wollen said. “If all you can see is the budget, my goodness, you’re missing the overall picture on this.”

As for the location on Broadway that the city currently owns, Wollen said there are fire department facilities in Reno County that would fit on that plot of land.

“So before getting rid of Broadway, I know you’d love to get rid of some stuff, but I would want to make dang sure we’re not going to use it for this,” Wollen said.

And while he wasn’t necessarily in favor of locating the fire department in the southern part of the city, Wollen said that the department makes a lot of runs to the south, and thus it made less sense to locate the fire department up north.

“I will vote against that from here until kingdom come, and if I’m the minority, I can live with that,” Wollen said.

Wollen added that he understood other discussion at the May 14 meeting about not keeping the former service station property on Main and U.S. 54/400 if the city did not intend to build a visitors center. But he opposed the city putting the Broadway property into the land bank until “we know for sure what we’re doing” with the fire department.

McFarland, during his comments, said he agreed that a location up north wasn’t a good location for the fire department.

Vice Mayor Travis Kaufman, in his comments, said he wouldn’t say that “anybody’s call is asinine or try to offend anyone who brought anything to the table for discussion.”

“I think it’s all just kind of seeing what works best with those who it affects and then making the best decision that we can,” Kaufman said. “It’s not all budgetary. It’s utilization.”

He added there should be more discussion about what to do with the fire department and “that’s why we’re all here and we all have a vote.”