Board wants more study on proposal for $40 million-plus fire station

The first mistake was Este ding his contract. He spends the district money Buying real estate which is illegal. Why spend more money to build and move the district offices to the new fire station?? Makes no sense and adds millions to the station. Time to step back and determine what Menlo park wants to be. Do we really want to be a small district that ships forces out as special forces?? Where is the value?

$70 million for a new fires station.........
What % of station use is predicted for all the Facebook and other developments around the 101 Dumbarton corridor? Are those companies going to pay extra for any of that? What about all the housing being built there? The Bohanon complex? All the new buildings at the VA?
How will the Fire District contend with the horrible traffic on Willow etc to answer health and fire calls?

The Chief doesn't make these spending decisions. The BOARD does. Get your facts straight before you start throwing stones.

Three Board seats are up for election in November. Time to vote in a new majority that can show some restraint and better judgement. Enough binge spending on pet projects!

time:

a new station is hardly a "pet project". With growing population a new station is a necessary addition. Not to mention a good number of the existing stations are old and were built to lower seismic standards. They will need replacement.

The people screaming about the fire department spending money on fire stations are the same people that will be screaming if there is a major seismic event that takes out fire stations and equipment. I can hear it now, "why didn't the fire department DO something to prevent this before it happened.

If you honestly think the department is wasting money, I suggest you look at their financials, then tell us they are throwing money away. Hint: they aren't.

Voter:
I could not agree more, modern, seismically safe facilities should be the District’s highest priority. Unfortunately it is not. I have examined the District’s financials and here are the pet projects I found:
Producing promotional videos for PGE with District personnel and equipment
Participating in the development, testing and marketing of products with private vendors that cannot be used by The District until certified by a national body. Why is the District subsidizing private commercial ventures?
Allotting 500k to renovate a decrepit house in Atherton to house off duty highly compensated employees
Embedding a District employee with Facebook
Allocating 500k for a drone program and hiring a 200k per year employee to manage the program
Buying a million dollar piece of equipment they cannot use

Shall I go on?

"Producing promotional videos for PGE with District personnel and equipment"

Agree that was a questionable expenditure.

"Participating in the development, testing and marketing of products with private vendors that cannot be used by The District until certified by a national body. Why is the District subsidizing private commercial ventures?"

To help accelerate a potentially valuable piece of fire fighting equipment. I don't have a problem with that.

"Allotting 500k to renovate a decrepit house in Atherton to house off duty highly compensated employees"

They've gone back and forth on whether it will rented to employees or rented on the market. In either case, the purchase was wise and forward looking. They will need that lot someday and it was bought for significantly less than they would have to pay for it 20 years from now. In addition, making repairs so it is rentable is also wise. Would you just have it sit vacant and decaying generating no revenue?

"Embedding a District employee with Facebook"

Given the size and population of Facebook I don't think this is questionable. They are a very large piece of the districts responsibility.

"Allocating 500k for a drone program and hiring a 200k per year employee to manage the program"

Nothing wrong with that either. The use of drones has proved to be invaluable in fighting fires and in making rescues. They increase the safety of firefighters as it is easier to gather situational awareness over a large area far less expensively than a helicopter.

"Buying a million dollar piece of equipment they cannot use"

What piece of equipment is that?