The city of Chehalis plans to make finding a new home for its fire department “a priority for 2018,” citing concerns about its 90-year-old building’s suitability to be a modern fire station, City Manager Jill Anderson told The Chronicle this week.
“Because of the building’s historic nature, it wasn’t built to be a fire station. It wasn’t built to be an essential services building,” she said.
Fire Chief Ken Cardinale said the department is exploring two options — buying land and building a modern headquarters location, similar to Riverside Fire Authority’s station on Harrison Avenue, or building a small satellite station to hold them over in anticipation of a possible consolidation with another fire district, such as Lewis County Fire District 6.
“Right now we’re evaluating sites based on response time and also the location for neighboring agencies,” he said.