Public Safety Committee

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE October 22, 2018 A meeting of the Public Safety Committee was held this date beginning at 4:35 p.m., at 80 Broad Street, City Hall, Council Chamber Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Shahid, Chair, Councilmember Seekings (arrived at 4:56 p.m.), Councilmember Wagner, Councilmember Lewis Staff: Chief Curia, Chief Vanhoy, Rick Jerue, Bethany Whitaker The meeting was opened with a moment of silence provided by Councilmember Wagner. Approval of Minutes On the motion of Councilmember Wagner, seconded by Councilmember Lewis, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the August 9, 2018 meeting. Discussion regarding Fire Stations in Cainhoy (Action may or may not be taken) Chairman Shahid stated that they would be talking about Fire Stations in the Cainhoy area. His tour of the Stations was at the end of June/beginning of July. The new station that was out there (Station 21) was a property that they didn’t own. They rented it. They also didn’t own the existing station, which was the ‘warehouse’ and it was where they had the bed bug problems. The nicest thing there was the piece of equipment that was essential to running the station. This was Councilmember White’s district. There was a need for a station in the middle of those two, because they were on opposite ends of Clements Ferry Road. When there was a need for a call, they had a MOU with the neighboring entities, but Mount Pleasant did not have an MOU with the City. They would come if they were available. There was a station on Seven Farms Drive, which was about 15 years old. So, they had three stations, with a need for a fourth, and need to upgrade Station 20, and Station 21 was just a temporary facility they were paying a lot of money on. The other concern, from a public safety standpoint, was that the response team for the Police Department was a lot. They didn’t have a facility for a police substation on Daniel Island. They could use the stations, but there wasn’t anything available to them to use. Councilmember Lewis asked if that was what they had talked about and Chief Vanhoy stated that it was Station 21. There was a second floor that was open and during the ribbon cutting, Chief Reynolds had walked through it and had some questions about possibly putting an office for the officers to stage. The closest thing they had was at Seven Farms Drive. Councilmember Lewis asked if North Charleston helped them and Chief Vanhoy said they would, but they were limited. As they went deeper down Clements 1 Ferry Road, they normally stopped. The City would sometimes request mutual aid from Mount Pleasant and they would respond sometimes, but not every time. Chief Vanhoy stated that they were currently looking at having four stations, with four engines, fully staffed, two ladder trucks, one water tender, a battalion chief, and a brush truck, to be fully staffed and serviced. Currently, they had one fully staffed engine, one fully staffed ladder truck, one Battalion Chief, CPD, and Berkeley County EMS at Station 18. They were proposing to move forward with Fire Station 20 on Enterprise, due to the conditions, which would still house one engine, and they would move the Battalion Chief from Seven Farms Drive up to Enterprise. That would put the Battalion Chief on the south end, so that they would have an extended response time. Chairman Shahid asked what the Battalion Chief was responsible for and Chief Vanhoy stated that he was responsible for the three engines assigned to that area, the ladder truck, and all operations in that battalion. Chief Vanhoy stated that they had opened up Station 21, which was a leased facility and it had a fully staffed engine and water tender. It was a single bay, but was three apparatuses deep. They were also proposing a new Station 22, with a fully staffed engine, ladder truck, three bays, presence of EMS, PD presence and a community conference room. That would bump up the effective response force to four engines, two ladder trucks, a water tender, a brush truck, and a Battalion Chief. Over the last several years, there had been a steady incline in call volume. A prime location for the new Station 22 would be around the Jack Primus area. There were approximately 1800 homes coming to that area. Councilmember Lewis asked if they had the land for Station 20 and Chief Vanhoy said that they were in the process and he was fairly certain it had been locked in. Chief Curia said that one of the main influencers of them recommending going forward with the replacement of Station 20 was that they were no closer on finding land for Station 22. Councilmember Lewis said that the original master plan called for nine stations for that area, so they were way off from where they needed to be. Chief Vanhoy stated that Station 20 was essentially a warehouse/tool shed. It was a leased building, and on a dirt driveway with a small patch of asphalt. They had issues with the fire trucks going down the gravel roads that had caused several maintenance problems. The building would flood during rain/storm events and the roof was sagging in the turn-out area. The kitchen was rugged and didn’t meet code because it didn’t have a hood over the range. It had one bathroom and two showers. The building didn’t meet essential facility requirements. It was a wood frame and combustible. During storms, they had to evacuate just about every time because it wouldn’t withstand a tropical storm. They would have to stage in other areas. It didn’t have a fire protection system, an alarm, or a back-up generator. Currently, the lease was $70,748 per year, and the lease was coming up in 2019. Chief Curia stated that they had sat down with Ms. Carducci to map out what permanent fire protection in Cainhoy would look like. One of the alarming things that Ms. Carducci had said was that this lease was up for renegotiation, so she needed a time-frame as to when they might have the new station in place which was one of the drivers of the conversation they were having. Chairman Shahid said they were paying just under $6,000 per month to lease that facility, which did not meet their needs. Councilmember Wagner asked which was more critical. He would think it would be Station 20, since it had already been existing and Station 22 was a future development. Chief Curia stated that they did not have ten years to wait for Station 22 to be in place. His understanding of the conversation with Councilmember White was that he wanted 2 Station 22 built first, and then circle back to Station 20. If everything was equal and they could have Station 20 or 22 on the same date, he would probably pick Station 22, to make sure that the coverage was available. But, the fact was, they didn’t have a conversation started for land for Station 22. Given the conditions that they were living under in Station 20, and the fact that they were moving ahead with the land purchase to replace it, the prudent thing was to go ahead with Station 20. There was a lot of development coming to Cainhoy, and so a follow-up conversation would need to happen about how they would move forward with the Station they didn’t build first. Councilmember Lewis asked what the timeline would be. Chief Vanhoy said that the land for Station 20 had been in the works for a while, so the land deal was almost ready to close. They had already gone through the procurement process and narrowed down to an architect. They were drawing plans out now. It would be about a four year turn around and about a 550 day build-out, barring any weather events. But, they were about a year and a half ahead on Station 20. Chairman Shahid stated that one of Councilmember White’s concerns was that Station 22 would cover the schools and industrial/commercial areas. He asked if Station 20/21 were able to cover those needs. Chief Vanhoy said that if they based it by the schools, Station 21 was about a mile and a half from the schools. They were within range. Help coming from Station 20 would be about 5.5 miles. They would be cutting it close for the response team for that. They were somewhat able to cover the middle grounds. There was a gap. Councilmember Seekings arrived at 4:56 p.m. Chairman Shahid stated that if they went ahead with the replacement for Station 20, if there was anything in the design for Station 20, that they would need to do to have effective response. Chief Vanhoy stated that there was money to build a Station 20, a two-bay station. For Station 22, there was not enough money to build a facility of a size to house the Police Department, EMS, and a community center. Chairman Shahid asked, aside from the community center, if they could build Station 20 that would be able to cover what was needed for the area of 20 and 22. He asked if they could over-build it. Chief Curia stated that a lot of things in the fire service were based on distance and time, so there was a gap where 22 would be going eventually. They were under some space constraints as far as the size of the lot for Station 20, but they could put more resources in the Station, if the City would support the cost. It wouldn’t necessarily alleviate the time/distance, but it would allow them to handle calls concurrently. Councilmember Wagner asked if the water was any better up in the area where 22 would go and Chief Vanhoy said that Station 21 had a filtration system. It was still well water though. Chairman Shahid stated that it seemed like they needed to get the Committee’s endorsement to proceed with the acquisition of land and construction of a new Station 20 and to start looking at what they could do for land for Station 22. Councilmember Seekings said they needed to sit down and be realistic about where they were with the budget and see whether they can raise revenues. He thought everyone recognized that this was a priority. Public Safety was their number one job and they needed to fix this. They were working on it, and they would see a draft budget soon. Money has already been slated for one, just not for both of them. 3 On the motion of Councilmember Seekings, seconded by Councilmember Lewis, the Committee voted unanimously to have the monies that had been allocated for fire department building, to go to Station 20. Discussion Councilmember Lewis asked how they were looking on Huger Street and Cannon Street. Chief Vanhoy stated that Huger Street was in Phase 1 of the grant process. They already had a draft plan set up for it. It would have all of the amenities and they would dry-proof the bottom of the station because that area still flooded. Councilmember Lewis said he hoped that the Huger Street problem would get solved soon. Councilmember Seekings said that area flooded all of the time, the access was terrible, and the number of residents was increasing in that area. They were opening the East Central Lofts and the extension of One80 Place. They were putting 500 new housing units in that area and there were two hotels also coming to that area. There was a large strain on public safety in that area. Councilmember Lewis said he knew the study had been done, and he was ready to see when construction would start. Councilmember Seekings asked if they had talked about having bikes at that Station because they could get around much faster. Chief Curia said they were tethered to the apparatus, however, going forward, they were trying to reduce the types of calls that they go to on the Peninsula. That would free up some time. Also, on strategic days/times, they were looking at possibly having a bicycle team. Having no further business, the Committee adjourned at 5:08 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary 4