MARIETTA – Marietta City Council is considering a request from the Marietta Fire Department for it to use the old fire station 2 instead of the city selling the property.

During a Public Lands and Buildings Committee meeting Thursday night, At-Large Councilman Harley Noland said he wanted to discuss the council proposal to sell the building located at 333 Franklin St. that used to be Marietta Fire Department’s station 2.

“I understand the fire department has interest in using it,” Noland said.

Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham spoke about the fire department’s request.

The fire department started using the station in 1930, according to the city’s website and Durham said the station closed in 1986 and was repurposed by the city.

Marietta City Council has been considering selling the old fire station 2 at 333 Franklin St., pictured, and discussed possibly letting the Marietta Fire Department use it again last week during a Public Lands and Buildings Committee meeting. (Photo by Art Smith)

The fire department purchased a 2000 fire engine in 1998 or 1999 and the size of the engine is too big for station 1 and it cannot fit in the bays, according to Durham.

“Our 1937 fire station … was originally designed for horse drawn wagons, so it doesn’t quite fit the apparatus that we now have so we’re trying to work forward on an operational plan,” he said.

The fire department tried to do an expansion of station 1 in the past but it was out of their budget and they thought of building a new building at Jackson Park. The 2000 fire truck has been stored at Pioneer Pipe off Westview Avenue for free since 2020, Durham said.

“This is a response truck for us,” Durham said. “It’s a backup engine, but every fire that we have it comes out and replaces the primary … so that the primary engine can come back in service to cover the city again.”

The department never brought up the idea of using fire station 2 again, according to Durham, because they didn’t want to displace other city departments, until they heard council was thinking of selling the building and the parks department might be moving out.

“We saw the opportunity to get our fire engine back under a city roof for a significantly lower price than it would ever cost us to even build a whole building,” Durham said.

The fire department took the 200o engine to 333 Franklin Street recently to get measurements and it fits, but a hanging furnace does have to be moved about 6 feet, according to Durham.

He said when people in the neighborhood saw the truck they were excited and were very supportive of the idea of the fire department using the property.

“We’re kind of excited that if permission is allowed, to have that footprint back over on the west side,” Durham said. “It gives us the opportunity not only to house a bunch of equipment that we need to house in an ever growing shortage of room that we have in the fire station, but it also gives us a strategic place for … flooding events that we have, that gives us a strategic response place that we can actually put some extra people to be able to take care of that community very quickly for a flood response if somebody gets into the water.”

Noland asked about renovation needed at the building. Durham spoke about the state of the property, saying minor renovations need to be done and he is waiting on a quote on windows and a few other things. He said he believed the work in the bay could be done internally by city workers.

Another reason the fire department wants to use the fire station is it is a part of the department’s history, according to Durham. There is a memorial on the building to Robert Junior Berry that stated he was killed in the line of duty in a fire on Jan. 19, 1967, at the rear of 211 Second St.

“So it does have a little piece of our heart as well as the functionality and the budget costs and that it was station 2 and we would like to make it station 2 again,” Durham said.

Noland indicated he was willing to wait for more information from Durham about the renovation costs and other matters associated with the fire station.

“I’m very willing to stop the consideration of sale to give you time to look into that and get information back to us,” Noland said.

Ward 4 Councilman Erin O’Neill shared what she has been hearing from residents about the idea.

“A lot of residents, I will agree with you, are excited about the idea of having it occupied again … I know a lot of people would really like to see something like a community center in that building instead of a firehouse or something like low income housing, or something with a laundromat,” she said. “I’m hearing all kinds of different things.”

O’Neill asked council to take this into consideration.

“I would not like to have a glorified storage building on the west

At-Large Councilman Jon Grimm echoed O’Neill’s thoughts stating as long as there is storage space people find a way to fill it. He said he supports the city providing better space for the fire department but he is concerned with operation costs too.

Durham said he thinks that things will cost in the same range as they are spending now for heating the bay and Grimm mentioned that there are other operational costs beside electricity and heat, like insurance rates and value that could be added to the tax roll if the property was sold.

He said he would like a “read” on these issues.

Noland asked Durham to get information together for council about the issues that were discussed and Durham confirmed he would do that.