By SUE RYAN
News staff writer
October 24, 2007

Two sources of funding have lined up for Cascade Locks’ new Emergency Services Center.

The state released the $500,000 in funds from a Community Development Block Grant after the city passed its environmental site review. And the Oregon Investment Board approved a $143,000 loan application that the city needed to fill the gap between its dedicated funding and the cost of the project.

City Administrator Bernard Seeger said the two positive steps were welcome news in the city’s efforts to replace its cinder-block fire hall on WaNaPa Street.

Efforts to build a new fire hall have been going on for more than 20 years. The council first ordered a design study in 1985. In the past two years, efforts to build the new facility gained momentum when $700,000 in grant funding was secured by the city including the half-million from the state.

The city must match that amount in grant funding, which comes from three sources: the sale of city land known as the McCoy property last year, the potential sale of the current fire hall and the OIB loan.

Still unknown is how much the city will get for selling the existing fire hall, which has not yet been put up for sale. While the city council has not passed a final resolution to go ahead with the sale, it has directed staff to research the issue.

Part of the delay in selling the fire hall property has come down to exactly what the city would sell as Overlook Park sits on the corner of the property. The park was developed with funds from the U.S. Forest Service.

The emergency services center would be the first phase of a planned joint county-city facility located on a 1-acre parcel of former Oregon Department of Transportation land closer to the Exit 44 on/off ramp.

The plan would include building a larger 7,792-square-foot facility to house all of the city’s firefighting equipment. It would include a steel building with a simple design.

The current fire hall was built in 1956 of un-reinforced concrete blocks and is not insulated. The original building is approximately 2,160 square feet with a small addition on the western end. While the OIB vote approved the initial application at its Oct. 11 meeting, the request must go on to the full Gorge Commission for final approval at its Nov. 13 meeting in Hood River.