Alamo City Council Considers New Event Center and New Fire Station

The Alamo City Council considered whether to move forward with plans to construct a new event center or divert attention to a new fire station during their monthly meeting on May 18.

Floyd asked the Board if they wanted to put out bids for a new event center project. According to Floyd, the project would cost approximately $883,368, with an extra $63,312 for an included safe room.

The center as planned would not include a kitchen at initial construction, but “that’s something we could go add back in ourselves,” according to Floyd. Alternatively, the city could add amendments during the bid process to include such amenities.

“Once you’ve got a budget and a bid, you can amend it,” said Floyd.

Floyd said the city could review their budgets after receiving bids for the project, and then reject any or all which are unfeasible. The city would also receive financial support from insurance, alleviating the cost.

According to Floyd, the city has already paid approximately $25,000 in the event center project.

Councilmember Steve Jones expressed concerns regarding the project, not wanting to spend over $1 million on an event center, with Councilmember Geter agreeing. Instead, he suggested using the space for the proposed center to construct storage for the Alamo Volunteer Fire Department, which had recently acquired more fire trucks.

“I just don’t see spending half a million dollars or even $300,000 now for a building that’s not going to affect every citizen,” said Jones.

As part of his suggestion to divert the effort towards the local fire department, Jones asked Assistant Fire Chief Rian Dixon to speak to the Council. Dixon was originally slated to speak later in the meeting, but was allowed to speak early, as he also wanted to request extra storage.

Dixon spoke to the Council on the state of the fire department’s fleet. According to Dixon, the department currently has four bays and six fire trucks; the two newest trucks were purchased for $100 and $1 respectively.

“It kind of seems overkill to have that many trucks, but right now, in Wheeler County, we are the most active by far,” said Dixon.

Dixon asked if the city could consider helping the fire department acquire a larger fire station, both for extra storage and to allow the department to use the space for other needs, such as an emergency command center.

Dixon also suggested one of the recently restored fire trucks could be displayed at the fire station, rather than stored away in a building.

The council members expressed their agreement regarding a new fire station, while also recognizing the need for a new event center. Ultimately, the council opted to table the discussion regarding the event center and the fire department, in order to research options and potential grants.

“I think that’s probably the best idea,” said Councilmember Laura Brownley. “Table that and reorganize how we want to go about this, because I think it is a priority to get the fire department in a place where they can be effective, and they can feel not so closed in.”