The Marshalltown Citizens Advisory Committee is inviting the public to attend one of three open houses as part of an informal question and answer review of six sites under consideration for the proposed Marshalltown Police and Fire Headquarters project.

They are Wednesday, March 2, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5-7 p.m., and Thursday March 3, 7-8:15 a.m., at the Fisher Community Center Auditorium, 709 S Center St. Childcare available in Room A.

The public will have the opportunity to view sites and give feedback. Committee members and consultants will be present to answer questions.

“The advisory committee welcomes feedback and will incorporate this information into their final selection which best suites the needs of the police and fire departments,” said Marshalltown Public Works Director and Committee Member Justin Nickel.

“The committee is a diverse group of 14 volunteers and city representatives who have been working for several weeks with consultant Prochaska & Associates of Omaha, Neb.,” he said. “Everyone’s work up to this point has resulted in the reduction of the original list of 20 sites to six.”

Prochaska & Associates

Helping the committee through the process has been Prochaska’s Jim Classe, Curtis Fields and Steve Riley.

The firm was hired last fall after an extensive interview process to help the committee and city council decide to either build a new police and fire buildings or remodel existing facilities.

The police headquarters at 22 N. Center St., and the fire house at 107 S. First Ave. – have serious building or size deficiencies – and remodeling either was ruled out.

Remodeling 22 N. Center was deemed cost prohibitive, due to major structural issues.

The north building of the fire house, built in 1955, has a major structural defect and is too small to house modern fire trucks and other equipment.

Twenty sites

The committee started in 2015 with 19 sites.

They later added Central Iowa Healthcare’s downtown campus.

Over a period of time, several were eliminated because they were sold, owners said they were not available, they did not meet necessary criteria for construction, or importantly, fire response time was determined to be too lengthy.

They were property owned by CIH but leased to McFarland Clinic downtown; city property on La Frentz Lane; the American Legion/Old Pool, selected last year to house the proposed new police building; the old Grey Iron site; property at South 12th Avenue and East Olive Street; property in the 700-1100 blocks of Southridge Road; an empty lot near the Hampton Inn on Iowa Avenue West; a former old restaurant site now occupied by Aspen Dental; the RACOM building; the former Staples building, now known as Slumberland Furniture; and the Century Link building.

CIH downtown eliminated

CIH’s downtown campus was eliminated at a committee meeting Feb. 9, when Mayor Jim Lowrance said it may not be vacated until 2020 or 2021.

CIH utilizes the property to offer overnight hospitalization, emergency room and other services, not available at its new outpatient clinic at the intersections of Iowa Highway14 and U.S. Highway 30.

CIH’s long-term goal is to move all operations to the new site.

Committee members did not want to wait four or five years to resolve the dilemma of how and where to house police and fire department buildings

The six finalists

Classe, Fields and Riley presented pros and cons on the final six sites Feb. 9.

The were the Old EconoFoods site; Liberty Campus (formerly known as Handy Industries); the property at South Third Avenue & Boone Street; West High Street, from Head Start building to the trailer court; the northwest quadrant of East Anson Street and South Third Avenue; and existing fire station and adjacent lots. Evaluation criteria ranged from assessed value to hazardous material abatement to demolition costs.

Citizen advisory committee

Members are Gabriela Vargas Avalos, Meredith Bell, Pete Charboneau, Fauna Nord, Jeannine Grady, Ross Harris, Leon Lamer, Lowrance, Betsy Macke, Bill Martin, Nickel, Paul Peglow, Randy Wetmore and Bethany Wirin.

For more information contact Nickel, 641-754-5734, or jnickel@ci.marshaltown.ia.us.