Truckee Meadows Fire outlines $16 million estimate, alternatives for Washoe Valley consolidated station

Deputy Chief Chris Kettering outlined a range of design, land and operating costs for a planned Washoe Valley consolidated fire station, telling the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District Board of Fire Commissioners on Sept. 2 that the district “wanna[s] to build the station. We just need to figure out how we find it.”

Kettering’s presentation followed months of public comment from West Washoe Valley residents who urged a faster return of local fire protection after volunteer and state-run stations were closed or repurposed. The presentation summarized historical studies, current operational data, multiple financing attempts and interim options such as reuse of the Bellevue volunteer station and placing temporary modular facilities on the purchased site.

Kettering said the project’s estimated construction cost rose from about $7.5 million in 2022 to roughly $16 million in 2025, plus about $1.2 million in site-adaptation costs. He told the board the district purchased the site in 2020 for $475,000 and that if the district instead purchased the state-owned Station 30 property it would need to pay a market-value appraisal of about $275,000. He listed several non-construction expense items that proved costly in local conditions — commercial well infrastructure (estimated $1.0 million–$1.6 million), paving ($200,000–$250,000), a…