Ballots are arriving in mailboxes and the May special districts election is right around the corner.

On the ballot, Mount Hood area voters will find that the Hoodland Fire District hopes to pass a $19.1 million bond measure.

The bond would allow the district to build a new, seismically sound and modern station.

Hoodland Fire has been in the same main station on the side of Highway 26 in Welches since 1966, and the crew is now looking to build a new home.

Over the years, multiple attempts at capital bonds have failed and led the district to build add-ons and install accessory buildings to the site to accommodate the growth of the department.

The last attempt was in the 1990s. Each of the last two attempts just barely failed: one by seven votes and one because there wasn’t a 51% voter turnout.

On May 20, the district hopes to successfully pass a $19.1 million bond, which would cost taxpayers 78 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. Roughly $234 per year on a property valued at $300,000. This would allow the district to build a new, seismically sound and updated station.

It would also allow the district to take advantage of an opportunity afforded by Clackamas County to receive the former Dorman Center site for free to build the new station on. The agreement only requires that the district maintain the community garden that’s already on the site, and accommodate 12 park-and-ride spaces for the Mt. Hood Express.

Current conditions

Scott Kline, the division chief at Hoodland Fire, started with the department in 1984, in the midst of the years of attempted bonds and additions made to the main station.

When he first got to Hoodland, the offices especially looked different, and there weren’t yet accessory buildings on the site acting as dormitories. In 1972, the district added four apparatus bays to the station as well.

With the station now nearly 60 years old and bursting at the seams, there are additional concerns about seismic safety and asbestos in the ceilings.

“If we have a large earthquake, this building is coming down,” Kline said. There are also cracks in the concrete block beneath the apparatus bay that’ve grown over time.

While the district has successfully passed levies and levy renewals in the past decade — one to help fund operations of the department — and they’ve received and used tax increment financing from Government Camp to upgrade and remodel the Government Camp station for overnight volunteers, this bond is a different type of funding and intended for a totally different cause than they’ve received money for in the past.

In May 2024, the district contracted MacKenzie architects/engineering to complete a deficiency report for the existing station.

The report had many findings, the most of note being:

• The station overall is not compliant with current seismic safety standards
• The pitch and the direction of the roof can cause snow buildup in front of the apparatus bay where engines exit the station
• The lobby space is limited, lacks security, and as the area where walk-in patients in need of first aid come for help, it lacks privacy.
• The offices lack the space and functionality needed for current staffing levels and security
• The offices in general also lack adequate storage, ventilation and offer limited natural lighting. These areas are also being used for storage, which can cause them to not have appropriate ADA clearance.
• The multi-purpose room is where people are expected to study and work, but because it is also a community/training room, it is not conducive to those purposes.
• The wash area of the station where turnouts and gear are cleaned is not large enough and laundry is being washed in what is considered the “dirty zone of the station,” increasing risk of cross-contamination.
• Because of limited space, firefighters are working out in the apparatus bay and exposed to diesel exhaust while exercising.
• The apparatus bay also does not have proper provisions in place to capture and address the exhaust from vehicles stored there.
• Turnouts are also exposed to exhaust and UV rays since they are stored in the apparatus bay area.

Other issues noted by MacKenzie highlight the major inefficiencies of having bunk rooms for firefighters separate from the station, adding minutes to their response time as they run from accessory dwellings out back through several doors to get to the bay. These dwellings are also not well ventilated or secured or ADA accessible, and they lack privacy for individuals.

Another needs assessment was also done by Otak Comprehensive Project Management. They offered this summary in their report:

“Upon completion of the assessment, it was found most of the building components were in unsatisfactory to poor condition, especially in the older parts of the building,” they wrote. “Deficiencies were found in most of the buildings but building system conditions improved with newer parts of the building, as expected.”

New station, new goals

Should the bond pass later this month, the district hopes to hit the ground running on work for the new station by fall.

Some of the features of the proposed new station would be:

• A separate personal training area (where they wouldn’t be breathing in exhaust while exercising).
• A conference room
• Bunk rooms with private bathrooms
• A community room with a 75-person capacity
• Separate mud rooms and turnout storage areas to keep debris from calls out of the clean common areas
• A separate triage room so those seeking first aid have privacy.
• And much more

Even if the bond is successful, Kline said the district is exploring ways to offset the cost of this capital undertaking.

“We’re trying to find ways to pay down that bond at a quicker rate, so the taxpayers aren’t burdened the whole 25 years (of the bond).”

To this end, district staff have been talking with state representatives about funding, applying for grants, and they plan to sell the old station once the new one is built, then putting that money back into the bond.

It is unclear if this bond measure will be successful, but the district continues to gather information for the possibility that they will be building a new station soon.

If the bond is not successful in May, the district has two more chances to secure funding before the agreement with the county for the Dorman site is no longer available.

“We’re doing our best and putting things as far into motion as we can so if we’re successful, we can really step it up and get things rolling,” Kline added.

For more information about the main station replacement project, visit hoodlandfire.gov/main-fire-station-replacement-project.