By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The two buildings that comprise the Onalaska fire department’s main station have been condemned.
Lewis County Fire District 1 Board of Commissioners Chair Rich Bainbridge said it wasn’t a surprise.
The notice dated yesterday indicates numerous issues such as structural dilapidation with wood rot, interior vegetation growth and inhalation hazards such as mold, asbestos and mice droppings.
“Everything you can think of is wrong with it,” Bainbridge said. “Obviously it caught us at an awkward time.”
He said they have been visited off and on this week by Labor and Industries and Lewis County.
“We had a meeting last night, L&I came down last night from Olympia,” he said. “They said, you’ve gotta get out of these buildings now.”
The station is located at 244 Carlisle Avenue.
Bainbridge said the district has two satellite stations it can use, but exactly where the fire engines and other equipment will be parked is unknown.
“I can’t answer that right now, where everything is going to go,” he said.
The newly appointed Fire Chief Adam Myer is taking an inventory of the district’s belongings, he said.
The district owns property, six acres, for a new building.
Bainbridge said an engineering firm is in the process of putting together a design and once they know the final cost, they plan to go for a bond to build it.
“That’s been my target since I became commissioner,” he said.
The three-member board of commissioners normally meets the third Thursday of each month, but some special meetings will likely be held, Bainbridge said.
November’s meeting was held in the office area at the Carlisle Avenue location and an emergency meeting the following week took place in the large bay just adjacent.
The second meeting was heavily attended and contentious, as the board had just dismissed the fire chief and then one-third of the volunteers resigned in protest.
Bainbridge isn”t sure where the next meeting will take place.
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For background, read “Commissioners, volunteers clash at Onalaska fire department” from Thursday November 23, 2017, here [1]