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Negotiations to start to give haz-mat
home at old Harbor fire station
By MEGAN POINSKI
Staff Writer
ASHTABULA - Ashtabula County's Haz-Mat Team is coming closer to having a
permanent home.
City Council members voted unanimously to allow City Manager August Pugliese to
begin negotiations with the Ashtabula County Fire Chiefs Association Monday
night. The former second station would be used as a headquarters for the haz-mat
team.
"I think this will be a great improvement for the city," said City
Manager August Pugliese.
Council's vote allows Pugliese to begin negotiations with County Fire Chiefs
Association chairman Doug Starkey to enter into a long-term lease for the
property. The terms of the lease, as written in the ordinance passed by council
members, are for 25 years at $1 each year.
County Fire Chiefs Association members unanimously voted to enter the
negotiations with the city at its meeting March 20. Starkey said the haz-mat
team coming into the former fire station is a real possibility.
"I'm absolutely looking forward to it," Starkey said. "I've been
really encouraged by the way people have looked at the project."
Starkey said negotiations between the chiefs and the city should take about a
month.
The county's haz-mat equipment travels to different locations for storage on a
regular basis, since it has no home and the team comprises members of different
fire departments. The former second fire station has enough room for the haz-mat
truck and a training area, is centrally located among the county's population
centers and is heated.
If the former station is transformed into the haz-mat headquarters, the County
Fire Chiefs Association will be responsible for any repairs, renovations and
landscaping. Pugliese and City Solicitor Thomas Simon said Monday the city will
insure the building and the Fire Chiefs Association will insure its contents.
Additionally, the city would pay for sewer and water service.
Pugliese has said the former second fire station, at West Ninth Street and
Thayer Avenue, will not be reopened as a fire station. It has not been used as a
fire station since 1987. After city voters defeated a .3 income tax increase to
renovate, staff and equip the second station last May, Pugliese has been
searching for another use for the building. There are no other interested
parties at this time.
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