Board votes to build contested fire station.

Byline: RANDI BJORNSTAD The Register-Guard

LORANE - The five-member Lorane Fire Board has voted to pursue its plan to spend $250,000 on a new fire station, and opponents of the project say they'll go forward with a recall effort against three of the board members.

After a community discussion failed to forge a compromise on the size and cost of a new building, the board met again and voted unanimously to go ahead with a 36-by-58-foot wood structure attached to the existing fire station. Members awarded the bid for the building to 2G Construction of Eugene.

The issue has split the community for more than a year. Vicki Brown, who filed paperwork earlier this month to initiate a recall election of three of the board members - President Gary Willoughby, Gordon "Bob" Hing and Linda Schafer - said she would turn in the completed petitions Monday, setting the recall election in progress.

Petitioners already have amassed at least double the number of signatures that should be needed to place the recall on the ballot, she said.

"It wasn't difficult at all. The (controversy) over the building was just a symptom of a bigger problem in the district - these three particular board members are not willing to listen to the wishes of the community," she said.

Two other board members, Berneda McDonald and Denise Cox, won't be affected by the recall effort.

Voters had passed a $270,000 bond measure in November 2000 to pay for a building to house fire district vehicles. But some residents later claimed that the board had misled voters about the type of building needed to protect water-carrying equipment and continue to qualify district residents for favorable fire insurance premium ratings.

Opponents of the project, including Lorane resident Linde Kester, said research by a citizen group concerned about the project's cost and scale determined that a much smaller freestanding metal building could be erected for about $70,000 and achieve the same purpose.

"Our group doesn't want to spend all the money on interest for the next 15 years that the (fancier) building would require," Kester said. "We believe that the building we've proposed would get the job done just as well without saddling us with that debt. In my opinion, they're spending like a bunch of drunken sailors."

The scaled-down version his group favors wouldn't have a disabled-accessible restroom, shower facility or laundry area included in the board's planned building, "but we believe we could pay for those items out of our regular district funds in the next fiscal year without adding to the debt," Kester said.

Fire Chief Joe Brewer said in a statement that he was glad to have a decision on the project. "(It) looks like after 13 months of talking, lawsuits and many obstacles to overcome, we are finally going to get to move," he said.

If Brown files the recall petitions Monday, the Lane County elections office will have 10 days to verify the 44 valid signatures of registered voters required for each petition. If the petitions qualify, a recall election must be held within 35 days, which would occur by mid-March.