Meeting room, clinic nixed at new Cudjoe fire station

A new fire station planned for Cudjoe Key lost its proposed medical clinic and public meeting room Tuesday.

Given a choice of options for the replacement station, Monroe County commissioners decided to order a building design that has three fire-truck bays but eliminated two optional rooms.

“I’m not seeing an outpouring of demand for a community room here,” Commissioner Heather Carruthers said.

County Fire Chief Jim Callahan said one option for the Cudjoe station included a meeting room similar to rooms included at other Florida Keys fire stations. “These are being used and I felt it was an appropriate use at a public fire station,” he said.

Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, a longtime fire-department associate, said a third vehicle bay would accommodate a large group when a meeting space is needed.

“We’ve got meeting rooms up and down the highway,” said George Neugent, newly tapped as county mayor at the Tuesday meeting.

A proposal also included space for future medical clinic. Callahan said health-insurance rules are changing to encourage the use of non-hospital facilities.

“We don’t know where the medical business is going,” Callahan said. “It was something mainly for the future. We’re trying to build for today and 50 years into the future.”

“I think that’s a step too far,” Commission Danny Kolhage said. Carruthers agreed that the county should be wary of operating a medical clinic.

Originally expected to cost around $275 per square foot, the station near mile marker 21 now likely will cost around $400 per square foot because of higher construction prices, Callahan said. That could raise the cost to nearly $4 million or more.

“I’m flabbergasted at $400 a foot and and we’re not talking about marble countertops,” Carruthers said.

In other issues at the Key West meeting:

▪ Heard an update on Stock Island road upgrades, which turned into a discussion of parking boat trailers and unused cars along county right of way. “It’s a constant enforcement issue,” County Engineer Judith Clarke said. “The right of way is not the appropriate place to store your boat.” Communities like Stock Island, developed when small lots were not designed for boats and multiple cars, have few options, commissioners noted.

▪ Approved $1.5 million in grants to the Florida Keys SPCA for its new animal-control building. The agency raised $6 million on its own. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Nov. 30.

▪ Heard a report on potential road and stormwater improvements to reduce the effect of increasingly troublesome high tides that now routinely flood streets in parts of Big Pine Key and Key Largo. No formal action was taken.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Meeting room, clinic nixed at new Cudjoe fire station."