Missouri Valley, Iowa, Mayor Clint Sargent knows his town needs a new fire station and city hall.
“Just to bring this facility up to code where it needs to be would cost $500,000,” said Mayor Sargent.
Sargent sees the need, but it may be hard for his citizens to see.
Start at the top floor of the building with the leaky roof.
“All that white stuff is old mold,” said Fire Chief Shawn Kelly.
Some rooms can’t be used.
“I mean you touch it and it just falls apart,” said Kelly.
Other rooms are far from comfortable because of a faulty HVAC system.
“You'll see your breath sometimes, it's that cold up here,” said Kelly.
The first floor of the building also has its flaws. City Hall is not ADA accessible, because of that city council has to meet elsewhere.
Down the hall is the volunteer fire station. The leaky roof is directly above their gear.
“You go to put on your bunker gear boats and they have three to four inches of water in them,” said Kelly.
The department can’t get modern equipment because it won’t fit. The department can hardly fir their current gear. But, trying to get out of the station onto Highway 30 may be the biggest issue.
“We have to wait a minute, two minutes, three minutes for all the cars to go by so we can get pulled out even with the lights and sirens turned on,” said Kelly.
There are numerous problems, but the city has a plan and has already purchased a piece of land.
A blue print has been drawn for a brand new city hall and fire station east of town. Mayor Sargent says the city council still needs to vote to put a $2.4 million bond issue on the ballot for the citizens to vote on.
Chief Kelly says in the meantime they’ll continue to work just as hard, with what they have.
“Sometimes it becomes difficult, but we do what we have to do for the community. That is what we signed up for and that's what we will do,” said Kelly.
