HUNTINGTON BEACH : Fire Station Work Plans Move Ahead

Plans to renovate two fire stations will move forward this month after a postponement due to the February oil spill and a bureaucratic snag, Fire Chief Raymond C. Picard said.

Expansions of the Bushard Street and Gothard Street stations will mark the city’s first efforts to accommodate its burgeoning firefighting staff since the construction of the city’s seventh station in 1978, Picard said. The expansions will cost $193,000.

At the Gothard Street station, south of Talbert Avenue, a battalion chief’s office will be added, along with additional garage space for a yet-to-be purchased ladder truck.

If enough money is left over after the Gothard station renovation, the city will expand the sleeping and bathroom quarters at the 25-year-old Bushard Street station near Yorktown Avenue.

The renovations, which had been in the works for years, were delayed further following the Feb. 7 offshore oil spill. Money that had been earmarked for the station expansions was redirected for the Fire Department’s emergency-response and cleanup effort, Picard said. The city has since recovered a portion of the money it spent in the wake of the disaster from British Petroleum, owner of the spilled oil.

Picard says he has a lengthy menu of renovations that have been indefinitely shelved due to lack of funding.

Topping the list, he said, is the long-delayed Heil Avenue station relocation.