Former Fire Station 4 on Briarcliff Road approved as city maintenance hub

The Salina Planning Commission on Oct. 6 approved a conditional use permit that lets the city turn the former Fire Station No. 4 at 669 Briarcliff Road into a base for its facilities maintenance division. The vote was 6-0.

The half-acre property was recently rezoned for public facilities, and a maintenance operation there requires a conditional use permit. According to the staff report, the fire station was built on the site in 1969 and was decommissioned after the city built a new station at Crawford Street and Markley Road.

The facilities maintenance division, led by Facilities Superintendent Troy Reinert, takes care of more than 500,000 square feet of city buildings. The staff report lists two administrative workers, six maintenance and construction workers and 10 custodians, though the custodians report directly to their assigned buildings and rarely visit the site. The division has eight vehicles, which would be parked overnight in the station's apparatus bays when possible. Hours would run mainly from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

City staff said replacing round-the-clock emergency calls and sirens with daytime work should mean less disruption for neighbors. The approval requires a 6-foot solid wood privacy fence around the north parking lot, which borders homes, along with the proposed landscaping. Reinert said rolling gates will allow access from both Briarcliff Road and Marymount Road.

Reinert told commissioners the division now works out of what he called a glorified two-car garage of about 1,200 square feet near the city's Central Garage. He said it will probably be about 60 days before the division is fully moved in, with interior work, the fence and added parking on the west side still to be done.