NEW HQ PLAN NIXED.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

ROSAMOND - The Kern County Sheriff's Department is dropping out of a plan for a joint sheriff's substation/fire station building, citing a lack of funding to build a station that's large enough.

The Sheriff's Department will remain in a leased building on Sierra Highway for at least three more years rather than be part of a $2.25 million county complex. Sheriff's officials agreed with a Kern County grand jury assessment, released in February, that it would be more cost-effective to stay put.

``There's not enough money to do it,'' said county Supervisor Don Maben, whose district includes Rosamond. ``It's on hold until greener days.''

The county renegotiated the lease of the Sierra Highway building for three more years. Prior to the end of the lease, the Sheriff's Department, with input from residents, will study the feasibility of building a new station, Sheriff Mack Wimbish said.

Originally, Kern County officials had hoped to begin construction this year on the joint station. The building was to be part of a civic complex featuring the nearby Wanda Kirk Library and a new complex being built for the Rosamond Community Services District.

By combining fire and sheriff's operations in one facility, the county had hoped to save money on design, bidding, construction and ongoing operations and maintenance.

The project was to be funded with money from the 1999 settlement of a lawsuit brought by 46 states against tobacco companies over smoking health costs and business practices.

``The original proposal to construct a new Sheriffs Substation in Rosamond with Tobacco Lawsuit Settlement monies was underfunded from the onset,'' Wimbish wrote in response to the grand jury report. ``The quality of the structure proposed, as compared to size and utilization, were below that of the existing substation site.''

The sheriff's portion of the proposed complex would have been only 178 square feet larger than the existing 2,500-square-foot substation.

The county is waiting to see what happens with the May revision of the proposed state budget to see whether it might be possible to continue with the fire station, estimated to cost about $1 million.

Kern County has already trimmed its budgets by 8 percent as the result of the state budget crisis and further cuts are coming, Maben said.

The Rosamond fire station was built in 1967 on Desert Street, south of Rosamond Boulevard. The station's equipment is housed in a World War II-style corrugated steel Quonset hut.

The Rosamond sheriff's substation was originally established in the back of the fire station in the late 1960s. In 1977, the substation moved to its own building, a converted two-bedroom, 1,260-square-foot house on Diamond Street.

The substation was closed in 1983 and reopened in 1987. In 1996, the station moved to the leased building on Sierra Highway.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com