Council approves reworded resolution for a new fire station at McCulloch Park

MUNCIE, Ind. — The new Muncie City Council, just elected in November, took on what has become a divisive issue in its first meeting Monday night and overcame an impasse with the help of its attorney.

Council took on a resolution that had been tabled by the previous council in December. The resolution authorized the city to enter into a build,operate-and-transfer agreement for the construction of a fire station to replace station No. 6 at McCulloch Park.

More: Proposed fire station No. 6 passed on to incoming council after debate

There is apparently no disagreement among the council members, firefighters and members of the public at the meeting that the current building is in poor condition and a new replacement that would provide needed private accommodations for the men and women assigned to the eastside station. The issue is using whether to use a build-operate-transfer agreement.

Under the agreement, the builder constructs the fire station at an agreed price and hands it over to the city when done.

The more conventional way to build the fire station would have the city advertise for bids for the construction and then choose the contractor.

The administration has said it plans to pay for the station with an $8 million bond issue. GM Development, based in Henry County, has been studying the station, its needs and location and is the intended builder. The company has built stations across the state.

After hearing from firefighters, Mayor Dan Ridenour and members of the public, council members said they still didn't have enough information to determine if the path being laid out by the administration was best.

A committee involving firefighters, council members and GM Development, has been working about two years on the plan for replacing three of the city's fire stations. As costs escalated with increasing interest rates the plans went from replacing three fire stations to replacing only No. 6 because of the poor condition there.

Five of the nine council members were not on the previous city council and said they had just been on the job eight days when asked to vote on the matter. While they had met with Ridenour individually about the fire station, a promised council and public works committee meeting about Fire Station 6 had not been conducted.

"Fire Station No. 6 is in horrible shape," said Nora Powell, council member representing the 2nd District. "... However, we were promised a public works meeting that never happened where we would have gotten answers to some of these questions that are very, very important."

Ridenour told the council that the build-operate-transfer agreement could insulate the city from price increases that might arise from opening the construction up to bidders.

Meanwhile, Ro Selvy, who was re-elected to council in November, made emotional pleas for the council to take action to approve the resolution.

"I wonder if the fire station was in another location if would have sat here and had this discussion over and over again," Selvy said, inferring that opponents were opposed to such a project on the east side of the city. "I think the community deserves it and deserves every bit of it."

Earlier in the meeting a number of leaders in the Whitely Neighborhood, including the principal of Longfellow Elementary, spoke in favor of the resolution, saying it would give youth an example of something good being done in their part of the world.

Attempts to put the issue back on the table resulted in a 4-4 tie, with council member Brandon Garrett absent from the meeting. Council President Jerry Dishman, who was chosen to lead the council earlier Monday night, backed the proposed resolution

Also chosen to become the attorney for city council was Dan Gibson. Gibson had served the previous council for three years before resigning in June last year because a council member had criticized Gibson's firm, Delk McNally, LLP. The criticism was in a matter unrelated to council business.

More: City Council attorney resigns saying Aaron Clark sent message critical of his firm

The 4-4 deadlock was broken when Gibson proposed to reword the resolution in a manner that made clear that council would have final say over the method of financing, including whether a build-operate-transfer agreement is used or if bids should be taken for construction. But Ridenour would still have the authority to develop the plans for council to approve and negotiate with GM Development of the cost of the station.

Gibson said it was similar to what was done in the summer of 2022 when GM Development was also set to build and develop as solar field on a brownfield where a Chevrolet plant sat for most of the 20th century. Those changes allowed the administration to move ahead with its plans in preparing an agreement with GM Development for the solar field. However, council eventually rejected the project.

More: Democrats, 1 Republican on Muncie City Council kill solar development at Chevy brownfield

The council voted unanimously for the reworded fire station resolution.

David Penticuff is a reporter with the Start Press. He can be contacted at dpenticuff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Wary council gives OK to replace Muncie Fire Station No.6