Former Belfair fire station ready for tenant

The old North Mason Regional Fire Authority station is next door to the new station, and it is just waiting for a new tenant to move in.

NMRFA vacated the building May 16, and hopes the county moves in sooner rather than later. The fire commissioners wrote a letter Feb. 27 to the Mason County Board of Commissioners asking to formally inquire about the county's intentions and timeline for moving into the old fire station.

"We are approaching a year since we have vacated the building," the letter reads. "The number one question we are asked by members of the North Mason community is what's happening with the old fire station. We strongly sense the eagerness among a good portion of the public in North Mason to see Mason County move into the fire station and unite all elements of North Mason Emergency Management Campus. We are routinely asked about the timeline for the county's move into the fire station, but we find ourselves at a disadvantage to answer with the limited information available."

County commissioners acted at the March 28 meeting, approving an Emergency Management Performance Grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that goes through the state Military Department and the state Emergency Management Department. The county received $39,012 for the 2022 grant, and it will be used to establish the North Mason Emergency Operations and Training Center to mirror the current center.

NMRFA chief Beau Bakken said the Authority's main concern is the building is 50 years old, and while it's had some renovations over the years, as the building sits vacant, "Mother Nature wants to take it back."

"If a building doesn't get utilized for any length of time, and granted it's still a great building, it's going to fit the bill just perfectly, but just lack of utilization, pipes don't get used, electricity doesn't run, that can create issues in the long term," Bakken said. "We certainly at the fire authority are chomping at the bit to get them in there because we want to fully realize what is ultimately going to be this awesome partnership and we want to put that on the fast track."

Bakken said the reason the authority moved out of the building was because of space.

"We had done several different remodels over the years to get it to it's current functionality so it's a usable building today," Bakken said. "We moved out because we needed more space than what we had. It's about 7,600 square feet of space over there compared with the 20,000 square feet that we're in now. What I know the holdup is from the county's standpoint is the building is laid out as a fire station, and it was laid out for our utilization. Having (Department of Emergency Management) and the Sheriff's department that need to work sharing that space, they need to go in and make some alterations."

County Administrator Mark Neary said the first step in the process is moving the Mason County Sheriff's Office North Precinct into the old fire station.

"It most likely isn't going to be five days a week because we just don't have the staff in all of our different departments to create a whole other site but I would like to see and we are looking at what are some other services that we can provide up there on a routine basis," Neary told the Herald.

Neary toured the building and said it is open.

"It's a nice blank slate to have in order to plan how we can occupy different services within that building," Neary said. "I think that the building is structurally sound so it really is a matter of doing some interior work and how can we break out this portion just for the Sheriff's Office and create a welcome area."

The building is already zoned as governmental, but the logistics of the move into the building including changing the use from fire to law enforcement and what Mason County services can be moved into the building. He would like to have Mason County Planning, Public Health and Auditor departments potentially use the building so Belfair residents don't have to continue to drive to Shelton for government services.

Bakken said he was told the fire authority would be presented with a lease agreement from the county, which the county prosecutor is preparing.

"Being up here, we're 45 minutes from Shelton, there's still a lot of county services that require an in-person component," Bakken said. "I know that the county is going to take a hard look as to what they can provide here at the north end of the county. We want our neighbors working with us closely as fast as we possibly can."

Neary said moving into the building by the end of the year is the plan and is feasible. After the Sheriff's Office gets moved in, he wants to try to get public health, human services and planning and development services in the building. He also said there is a back part of the facility that is open and would work well for an alternative emergency center.

"I would like to see us have a site for emergency management," Neary said. "In the event of some type of an emergency, we could occupy the back of that facility and really conduct our emergency operations out of North Mason. If the emergency is occurring in North Mason, it sure would be nice to have it there as opposed to our Public Works department. I think it would be nice to have an alternative location and responding to emergencies so if one of those goes down, we always have another one."

While both parties agree on getting the building functioning as a campus for government services, it appears the only matter left is the execution of it all.

"The county has multiple capital projects. They've got the courthouse that they're working on and finishing up, they've got a couple other capital projects," Bakken said. "We understand that we're kind of in the queue in addition to all these other projects but we do want to make sure, because, one of the things is that and if I'm timing it right, it's December of this year, the lease agreement for the North Precinct is going to expire. That's still several months out and that's going to pass really quickly. What we don't want to have is rushed decisions and try to figure things out at the last minute because of this looming deadline. We'd like to really make sure the planning process is moving along as quickly as possible."

Author Bio

Matt Baide, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
Email: [email protected]

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