FEMA gives green light to build new Central Fire Station on former Emerald Knights site

CEDAR RAPIDS - Federal and state officials have given the city the go-ahead to build its new Central Fire Station in the block between First and Second avenues and Seventh and Eighth streets SE that once housed the Emerald Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, city officials said Monday.

The City Council had picked the Emerald Knights block in December for the new $22.6-million fire station only to run into difficulties with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The federal agency said it had not been able to conduct a required environmental and historic analysis of the site because the private owner of the property had demolished most of the buildings in the block before the council's decision to buy the property for the new fire station.

The lingering FEMA questions prompted the owners of most of the block to put their property up for sale in April. At the time, Tom Slattery Sr., senior partner with Heritage Property Management in Cedar Rapids, said the site would make a great spot for a hotel or any number of other projects if the fire station project wasn't going to work on the site.

On Monday, though, Joe O'Hern, the city's director of flood recovery and reinvestment, told the City Council's Public Safety Committee that FEMA and state officials have resolved their differences with the city over the handling of the site and have cleared it for purchase for the new fire station.

Mark English, the city's acting fire chief, told the council committee that the fire station project committee met Friday to kick off purchase discussions for the Emerald Knights block. Construction still should be able to be complete on the new facility in the summer of 2013 as has been planned, English said.

Mayor Ron Corbett on Monday said FEMA, the state and city finally were on the “one page” on the fire station project.

“It's time to get moving on the construction,” he said.

O'Hern said the city, FEMA and state officials will need to adopt a memorandum of agreement on the Emerald Knights site to document what had been on it before the demolition took place. However, he said the city is now free to purchase the property with the expectation that FEMA disaster funds will contribute to the project. The project - which is replacing the city's Central Fire Station at 222 Third St. NW that was destroyed in the June 2008 flood - also has secured a $5-million grant from the state I-JOBS program. In addition, the City Council has said it may use some funds from the city's local-option sales tax for flood recovery if needed to help with the property purchase.

The block referred to as the Emerald Knights block was one of three blocks in proximity to one another that were picked by a Fire Station Relocation Advisory Committee as the best for a new Central Fire Station.

At-large City Council member Don Karr, a west-side resident who was a member of the advisory committee and who voted for the Emerald Knights site as part of a unanimous council vote, on Monday said he was having second thoughts about the Emerald Knights site. He said he wanted the council to revisit the matter and consider a site on First Avenue West for the new Central Fire Station. The Emerald Knights site, he said, will require fire engines to cross the Cedar River and recross it to fight a fire in the downtown if there is a train on the tracks running through downtown.

Chuck Wieneke, a west-side council member and a member of the council's Public Safety Committee, said on Monday that he continues to support the Emerald Knights site as did Mayor Corbett.