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With new Wildwood firehouse on hold, leaders will head to court

"We have always experienced cooperative, welcoming projects with our municipal partners. This is very foreign to us," Monarch Fire Chief Cary Spiegel said.

WILDWOOD, Mo. — Fire district officials say they are fighting to improve the protection for their community, but Wildwood city leaders say there is more to it.

Right now, they said, the Wildwood Fire Station and a new ambulance service are in jeopardy. 

It's a project that voters approved two years ago, but Monarch Fire Protection District Chief Cary Spiegel said, it continues to be blocked by Wildwood elected officials.

But Wildwood Mayor Jim Bowlin said that's simply not true. 

Spiegel said the new Wildwood fire station, which would also house an ambulance, was overwhelmingly approved by voters in June of 2020.

He said the delay of this bond-approved construction has resulted in enormous cost overruns.

Mayor Bowlin said the city originally approved it, but there are reasons it hasn't been built.

Spiegel said in Monarch's sixty-plus years of existence, this type of pushback, has never happened.

"We have always experienced cooperative, welcoming projects with our municipal partners. This is very foreign to us," he said.

For Spiegel, this project has been on his mind for much longer than just two years.

"It started long before that. The fire district has been researching and evaluating our properties and determining how to address the needs of the fire district," he said.

That research, according to Spiegel, determined many things and one of them was that Fire House No. 2, in Wildwood, needed to be replaced. 

"It's 52 years old and it's high maintenance. It does not comply with the science that's known now to protect crews from exposures," he said.

After further studies and research, the Monarch Fire Protection District bought a new site for the station, just right down the road.

According to Spiegel, it meets all of the city's zoning requirements and the Architectural Review Board passed it with flying colors, but it continues to be blocked by city officials.

"It was extremely frustrating and time-consuming and expensive," he said.

A major part of this construction would allow an ambulance to fit in the firehouse.

Assistant Fire Chief Leslie Crews said there is a vacancy right now in that area for EMS services, and with approval, that community would get the protection it deserves.

"That puts that ambulance on your doorstep a lot quicker than what you're gonna get it right now, that is a game changer," he said.

Mayor Bowlin said the reason for the denial is two-fold.

First, he said, there was very limited, if any, due diligence done before the property was purchased, particularly when it comes to response times.

In response to that, Spiegel said they found no problems with the property at all and hired professionals to research and make sure the property was a good fit for the firehouse. 

Secondly, according to Bowlin, the Monarch board took the position that it did not have to comply with any municipalities rules, including Wildwood.

"Just in the past few months, the court said that that's not the case. That the fire district board does have to comply with Wildwood and other municipalities rules," he said.

Spiegel said they are now complying and they have done everything the city has asked. 

Part of the city's compliance is making sure response times will be the same or better, and Bowlin said new data shows that isn't the case. 

"We just got data from the Monarch board, within the last couple of weeks, that shows two things. Number one, they're not able to comply with the National Fire Protection Association rules relative to response times. Second, according to their own data, the response times are going to, in fact, be 10 seconds longer per response, so that's why this fire station hasn't been built," he said.

According to Spiegel, that is something they, "can't comply with and it's an impossible requirement."

While there are two different sides here, they are both just looking for a solution.

"I think that it comes down to protecting our residents. They want that and we want that," Bowlin said.

"I just am hopeful that this is resolved and we can get this done," Spiegel said.

Spiegel said the cost of the ongoing delays, and additional costs to taxpayers, forced them to turn to the courts for relief. 

There is a court hearing scheduled for Friday, Aug. 26. 

Both parties will have representation there.



    

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