School District considering selling a portion of Beaver Valley property to Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue

Cascade School District officials are considering selling a portion of their Beaver Valley School property in Plain for construction of a new fire station. 

“We were contacted by the Fire Chief of Chelan County Fire District 9, Mick LeMar. He approached me saying the fire district has expanded quite a bit due to the number of calls they are responding to because they are doing emergency medical out of their station and fire calls,” said Bill Motsenbocker, Cascade superintendent. “They have a need to expand their facilities to house more vehicles, some maintenance areas, larger training areas, etc. They were interested in purchasing part of our Beaver Valley property.”

The fire district is interested in about 5.5 acres. Motsenbocker said he informally contacted the board to see if they would be interested in talking about it. They indicated they were interested in continuing the discussion as long as the purchaser was another public agency, especially if part of the development plans could include space for kids. 

“They’ve talked about having an interest in having some green space for little kids soccer and a backstop for baseball. The training room they have an interest in building would be accessible to our Beaver Valley students, staff and parents,” Motsenbocker said. 

A community meeting on the proposal was held on Nov. 6 at the fire station in Plain. Around 80 people attended the meeting. 

“They were going to have a presentation on that and would take questions from the community. I attended and Carrie Sorensen attended. Mick LeMar gave a powerpoint presentation on the history of the district and why there was the need to expand facilities,” Motsenbocker said. “The Fire District 9 commissioners were there. The chair of the commission, Rollie Schmitten, spoke the commission was in favor locating some property. Members of the community were able to ask questions and state how they felt about it.”

Most of the people spoke in favor of it as long as there was going to be community access to a large meeting area and some open space. There was a small group of people who live on nearby Hill Street there. 

They indicated concerns about noise and light pollution, wanting to know exactly what was being developed there and how their properties would be affected by it. 

“The fire district indicated they would like to work directly with the neighbors to make sure things were as they hoped. There are no guarantees with those sorts of things, as far as, the fire district needing to building the facilities they need to build, but they definitely want to take input from the neighbors,” Motsenbocker said. 

Motsenbocker said he explained the funding situation from the state for a Remote but Necessary School like Beaver Valley School. It can only grow to 60 students in size. Once it goes past that, the school district does not receive funding for the building. 

“We don’t have any plans to expand beyond that. If we went to 60 students, we could do that expansion on the property the school is located on anyway. There really is no downside to selling the property for us, because we never would expand that much anyway,” Motsenbocker said. “It was a 10-acre parcel to begin with. We bought it many years ago. It was very reasonable price. The school district is interested in pursuing the conversation with the fire district but we have not made any agreement.”

LeMar said they have long recognized the growth occurring in the district. They are seeing more and more people moving in, and along with that, call volume has gone up. 

With that, they brought in a company called ESCI, which is Emergency Services Consulting Institute, to do a strategic plan. 

“One of the things identified, some of the stations we have now aren’t accommodating to us both environmentally and operationally. Three of our four stations are basically land locked, either on leased land or are encumbered by a road or a river, where we could not do an expansion,” LeMar said. “We wanted to stay close to our existing stations because they are strategically located and helps the constituents receive a lower insurance rating because we’re spread out throughout the district.”

At that point, LeMar said they started looking at the Beaver Valley School next door, noting that the back end of the 10-acre parcel has sat unused since the school was built. 

“After our strategic plan and looking at our current stations, we thought let’s send a letter to the school district, and if they were ever in a place where they might consider surplusing that land, we would be interested,” LeMar said. “It co-joins us. It’s right by a station that we already have. Part of our strategic plan calls for the development of a refuge, if we have disaster, for the community be able to go to.”

LeMar remembers the big tree storm from a few years ago, which killed two people and left five critically injured. The residents there were without power for eight to 10 days. 

“We really had no place to house them, to eat a meal or take a shower, wash clothes. We feel providing emergency services as volunteer fire district is not only fire related, it actually surviving in extreme conditions,” LeMar said. “I think that was accentuated by the Oso landslide when Arlington and Darrington and those small departments had to respond to that disaster. We wanted to be proactive and look for some land to expand in. That land seemed like a natural for us because it is close by.”

LeMar said they could save the taxpayers some money if they could acquire it and hold it for awhile as they develop a plan for a station on the two parcels. The would prefer that emergency response equipment still use Beaver Valley Road. 

The two old metal buildings there now would go. The new station would go right there. There is the possibility for administrative spaces or a community meeting room. He said they would not be going into Hill Street itself. 

“The people on Hill Street would be the most impacted. They had concerns they expressed to us. Most of those were design related. What size building? What are you going to do there?,” LeMar said. “We addressed some of their concerns. Some of their concerns, we’re not able to address until we design the facility. We invited them to be part of the design crew and committee that we’re going to put together to look at it.”

To fund the project, LeMar said they would try for an USDA block grant, which typically takes 3-to-5 years. After that, would be a design and build period. It would be several years before something is built on the property. 

“We’ve missed some opportunities to have some seasonal firefights assigned by DNR (Department of Natural Resources) because we currently don’t have sleeping quarters in our stations. The propensity of fire seems to be growing and threat is not going away,” LeMar said. “We’re going to need to look into the future. Volunteer fire departments membership is declining. Ours happens to be fairly steady. We have to look 20 years into the future. In 20 years, there’s a real possibility there would be career firefighters on duty up here to respond to calls.”

The older stations were built for smaller fire trucks. The new fire trucks are much bigger. The job of the firefighter is much more complex, LeMar said. 

“There’s a lot of external rules that apply to us that weren’t there when we built our old stations. We need to be deliberate about this and thoughtful about it. We need to be respectful of the folks on Hill Street and what their concerns are,” LeMar said. “At the same time, we as a fire district, have to be forward thinking. Land is becoming less and less available, less and less affordable, less and less located in an area centrally located for the responders. We’re just trying to lock some of that down.” 

School children would still be able to access the property, LeMar said. His firefighters spend a lot of time at the school. They helped build the covered play area. 

“We envision a place where kids can run and play. No fences if they want to cross country ski. The field will be open for that sort of thing,” LeMar said. “I’ve had grandkids graduate from Beaver Valley Elementary. I could see, if we have the right place built, kindergarten graduation could be held in the community meeting room. I honestly believe this fire district is the fabric of the community.”

Some of the folks on Hill Street think they are wanting to build the Taj-Ma-Fire Hall, he said. 

“That is just not our intent. Our intention is to be forward thinking, secure some land, so in the future we can develop, so the district is prepared to address the threats and the risks that come with larger populations, more visitors, more fire risks,” LeMar said. “We’re excited to be partners with the school district, if this works out. It is key for us to responsive to the people most affected by this. We want to include them in the design phase. We want to be good neighbors. This is our home. We want to do a good job.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.