Remarks by Mathew Salter
94 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
Thank you. This is beautiful. Thank you for this work. I just have a couple questions. If you could go back to the first floor diagram.
So right now, the building has three bays. Correct. And accommodate three. And so can you just explain why you have four?
We had a reserve engine that was staffed here in the third bay. So, as you've noted in your other stations there, you know, 2 bays is sufficient because you would have 1 engine and 1 ambulance. So I don't necessarily, you know, we need to discuss whether we need a reserve engine with the chief, but you may not need to build that. You know, we could just, you could still have the decontamination area and then we just have the two bays.
Okay. And then there's like a floating area above the.
Okay sorry and then lastly we when when the plan came out from the CAC there was some space for outdoor you know community tables and obviously space for outdoor recreation for the people who are using the building right is that envisioned here also yeah I think we're gonna have to
Mayor Mrakas, So just to clarify the main difference between having a fire station or not, is the potential that we would need to add another bay that's the bay and then the upstairs you're showing. Mayor Mrakas, Some bedrooms square feet. Mayor Mrakas, Three bedrooms yeah. Mayor Mrakas, So if we went ahead and built the bedrooms we might just have some extra bedrooms there. that we might use at some point, and then the downstairs space could be used as something else instead of that bay. But all the other functions, the living room, the kitchen, the gym, all of that stuff has to be built no…
Because we got all these cost estimates before that it was going to be $14 million to build fire safety.
Yes, but I just we were talking about maybe 2000 square feet of difference between a fire station and just doing the paramedics in here. And so I'm just shocked that all the studies before this had said this was going to be such an expensive option to do. Mayor Mrakas, Because this really is the crux, we have a lot of townspeople who are confused that adding the fire station is going to be really expensive, and so I want to make it really clear in your design here you're talking about one bay a garage. Mayor Mrakas, yeah and 700 square feet of bedrooms. And so that doesn't seem very costly.…
Yeah. So thank you, Krista. It's my job to ask questions. So I appreciate you trying to answer for them. But this is my job. And there's been a lot of really, really contentious information about the option, quote unquote, to build the fire station in. So I'm not asking you. I'm asking him.
I would like to speak directly to the consultants that we hire as the council. OK, your job is to work for us, Krista. So I don't appreciate you interrupting me and coming in the middle of my questions for a consultant. They can answer to the council. I'm a council member. And I don't appreciate you getting in the middle of it. It's not your job or your role.
So I'm jumping in. I'm allowed to ask questions, Krista.
Mayor Mrakas, yeah The point i'm making is that with this program of potentially a garage which the cost per square foot, this is why you know you need people on this Council that build things.
Why I would be a and what would be your cost estimate per square foot for the garage and what would be a an average cost per square foot for the bedroom square footage. because then I can easily calculate what this extra square footage costs.
So I don't mind doing the costing because I think it's going to show really loud and clear that the quote unquote fire station is an immaterial cost because to build This apparatus apparatus bay, which seems to be the only major change, because the interior space will be repurposed for something else which costs money. it's nothing the station never should have been closed never because this is not this this has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a fire station when you're already building a paramedic facility is really just about some extra bedrooms and a apparatus bay. That's what the…
I see it absolutely absolutely that'd be helpful mayor we'll also we'll send it to the whole council and we'll also get it on our page on the on the town's website perfect thank you and thank you for all this excellent work it's really yeah I have one one additional comment on the you know now that we have a new fire chief or sorry police chief I I would hope that you know all the departments would have a view and be able to City Council Chambers, provide input for all of the different functions and make sure it's still meets the requirements, so I just would add, I want you to continue your…
Yeah, and I would just add, once you actually start designing the spaces, then going to each of the departments and making sure, like, does this work for you? Like, would you, if you lived and worked in here, would this work for you? Yes. We want to do this right. We want to make sure that the building works as intended. And if that delays things, I think we're all okay with that because we want to make sure we're getting it right.
Matt so I believe that the council should reflect the community 75 of the council is 65 years or older and I believe the community is better served when the council represents its residents I think many of the problems we've faced over the last two years have a lot to do with the the distance between who's on the council and who represents the residents. And I think we need to use this opportunity to rectify that. I think Steven or Megan will add diversity to the council and unique skill sets that are currently missing. Steven is an accomplished architect and has the requisite leadership…
Okay. I'd like to say something if I can.
I have questions. So the first is just regarding being part of the department or not. I think the goal obviously is to remain a part of a larger department. But I also wanted to state that prior to 2012, Ross was its own station and operated out of the building with this square footage. So adding 3,000 square feet to be its own department seems, again, I don't know why we keep referring to the Mary McGrath report. It's totally irrelevant. So there's ways of economizing. But again, I think our goal is to remain a part of the Ross Valley Fire Department. My question is I want to be part of the…
is the same or similar it is the same it's it's three three fires firemen so again and it's it's two two bays so we I don't know why we would say no to looking at other comps of stations that are being built right now like I just don't even understand that at all why we wouldn't be looking at every model available to build our station like why why would you turn away information
Yeah, so Gensler, I'm sorry, is there any issue with looking at another fire station that's basically in its development stage?
Yeah, so, Letha, just to be clear about why I'm saying this is we've been hearing that we need 7,000 square feet or 10,000 square feet. But, you know, these other comps that we're looking at are materially smaller. And so the idea is what is informing what is actually necessary for the programming of these stations? It's not to talk about the structural building it's to talk about what are the programming needs and we keep staff for some reason keeps referring to these reports by Mary McGrath that have these incredible amounts of square footage saying everything must be this way but we have…
It's not under construction. It is just in designs. You can't really, you just have to look at the designs. There's nothing really to see. It hasn't been broken ground.
I'm sorry, did we receive an amendment number two in the staff report? It said I wasn't ready.
So I think clearly we want Gensler to move forward with its scope. All the election code reports are totally irrelevant right now. And what we need to do is allow them to look at these fire station comps, meet with the fire chief and the paramedic chief as well, with Chief Weber, I assume. To come up with the the right sizing for this for this project and you know we want to get it right we want to do it right and these reports that have been issued in the past are were based on assumptions that don't exist today and so I would encourage that amendment to be drawn up and signed as soon as we…