Downtown Bellevue is full of tall, modern and new buildings. Not far away, the city's fire department says it is saddled with buildings that are too old, too small and in need of new funding.
Recently, Bellevue City Council approved a 20-year, $120 million ballot measure to give all nine fire stations seismic upgrades, expand to allow larger fire trucks and build a new facility downtown. The measure is on the November ballot.
"The response times for our ladder trucks are lagging," said Lt. Ryan Armstrong from Bellevue Fire. "By repositioning them we'll better serve the entire city."
Part of that repositioning means putting large ladder trucks at stations that cannot hold them.
"If a ladder truck was placed here today," said Lt. Armstrong of Station 6 in the Bel-Red area, "The front end would stick out five feet."
Lt. Armstrong said the department has not tried to pass a levy in 30 years. In that time downtown Bellevue has grown up.