Fire officials eventually want to expand the building from its current 6,870 square feet to about 18,000 square feet to meet what they say are the growing needs of a growing community.
“Is it serving the needs of the community? Only by the fact that it houses firefighters,” Fire Chief Chris Gray said.
While that may be important, the station is unable to incorporate the community services of other stations because of size constraints, he said.
“The community is not able to take advantage of the actual fire station,” he said.
While funding for minor upgrades there wasn’t an issue for the council Tuesday, spending even more on a library no one intends to keep around took more convincing.
“We gotta look long term,” Weaver said. “The Fire Department belongs in that location.”
Council members quizzed Hunt-Coffey on the prudence of making the investment under an unpredictable time frame.
“It’s just so hard to know,” she told the council.
But after council members agreed to take a more pessimistic outlook on finding a new library site, all of them agreed the new five- to six-year land acquisition and construction schedule put the Casa Verdugo branch beyond an acceptable wait.
“Let’s just bite the bullet,” Councilman Frank Quintero said.
Improvements to both buildings should be completed by 2009, city staff members said.
Mayor Ara Najarian excused himself from the special meeting citing a conflict of interest in the matter.
JASON WELLS covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.
