Residents Seek Historical Building Status for Station 95

Residents of Bethel Island have submitted their “application for nomination” to preserve the Bethel Island Fire station as a historical building. While I can appreciate the gesture, this really isn’t a good idea because the station needs to be replaced with a true working station.

The other reality facing Bethel Island is they likely have lost any form of a working station. Any new station or re-opened one will likely be placed on the other side of the bridge in Oakley to cover Oakley, Knightsen and Bethel Island–but much closer than Station 93.

Here is what Christine Thresh wrote about in her blog:

Heather Campbell and I (Christine Thresh) took our “Application for Nomination” to Martinez yesterday. We are hoping to get the Bethel Island Fire Station approved as a historical building by the County’s Historical Landmarks Advisory Committee, and then by the Board of Supervisors. If the building is chosen, we can refurbish it and have it ready as a command center and gathering place for paid-on-call firefighters and emergency medical responders here on Bethel Island.

East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) could not fix up the building because it was in a floodplain and had to be raised up in the air if they worked on it. However, there is an exemption from the FEMA floodplain rules if a building is a Historic Structure it does NOT have to be raised above the mean flood height.

The BIMAC approved the application at Tuesday night’s meeting and put up some money for the application fee. Islanders also contributed for the fee. Thanks to Page Pratt, Grant, Dori Anderson, and Marguerite Lawry we could pay the $500 application fee yesterday!