Smiley votes 3-2 to sell fire station land to ESD 2

The Smiley City Council voted 3-2 Wednesday, April 9, during a special called meeting to sell the land on FM 108 where the Smiley Fire Station sits to Gonzales County Emergency Services District No. 2, which oversees operations and funding for the six fire departments in the county.

ESD 2 is working to combine the Nixon Fire and Rescue with the Smiley Fire Department into a single entity — Gonzales County Fire South — which would have jurisdiction over the entire southern quarter of the county. The department would keep stations in both Nixon and Smiley and report to a single fire chief, Mark Mendez of Nixon, in order to streamline operations.

There had been concern among members of the current Smiley Fire Department that the city would keep the land for itself or sell it to someone else, which would have forced ESD 2 to find another site for a station in the southeastern part of Gonzales County, whether elsewhere in Smiley or even possibly closer to Westhoff.

They voiced those concerns to the council during the public comment portion of the meeting Wednesday morning. Lester Warzecha, a longtime Smiley volunteer firefighter, said he had researched the history of the department and was told the city may have bought the property for the department, but it was paid for with fire department funds.

“It was their money that was in their account, or that was raised and put in there, and bought through the city,” Warzecha said. “Each one basically has the same story that the city didn't have a lot of money back then. The fire department had fundraisers and had the money. The land was bought from from the railroad through the fire department and the plan was to build a building, which they did.”

Additional fundraisers were held to finance the pad on which the building sits, the building itself and the helicopter pad, Warzecha said. The city later came to the department to ask permission to put a water well on the property, which was granted.

Right before the decision was made to consolidate the departments, the Smiley Fire Department was planning a fundraiser to build a park with a playground, including swings and monkey bars, on its property.

“History shows that was bought by us, and I don't think we're asking for anything — I don't think, as a taxpayer, I'm asking for anything — other than to give what belongs to the fire department,” Warzecha said. “I'm just asking you to do the right thing and go back to what we talked about before, and let the ESD sign off your half and sign the other half over to the fire department, and let's go on and let's keep the fire department here.”

Warzecha said the ESD has indicated if the property was not sold to them, they would look elsewhere for a station.
“I've been asked to try to find property between Smiley and Westhoff for another fire department, just to keep an eye out and see if anything comes up, and I was asked also to find out if that building can be unbolted and moved,” he added.

Former Smiley Mayor Mike Mills confirmed Warzecha’s information about the fire department paid for the station to be built. He told the council any money the city oversaw that was earmarked for the fire department belonged to the department and the same was true of the station.

“That was the fire department's money and we just looked over it,” Mills said. “We couldn't, as a city, spend it or use it for anything for the city. It was for the fire department.”

He expressed concern that if the fire station were to move, it would impact both response time in the city (including to Nixon-Smiley Elementary School, which is less than half a mile from the station) as well as the city’s ISO rate, which determines how much insurers can charge residents for their property insurance premiums. The lower the ISO rate, the lower insurance premiums are.

“My concerns is if we lose our fire department and they do move outside the city, we're going to lose response time — not just for all of us. We're going to be losing for anybody here that lives here,” Mills said. “We’re going to lose it for anyone that needs it. How many people have children at this school? Nine to 10 months out of the year, there are 500 little kids there that need the department close.

“Two or three minutes can be a life quickly. If we lose our fire department, we're going to lose response times. We're going to be losing protection of our citizens and the people at that school. Also, our ISO rating will go up. That means you taxpayers, the insurance is going to go up.”

Mills said he knows ESD 2 has offered the city money for the station so “Why not take it, especially when you didn’t buy it in the first place — the fire department bought it.”

“If you guys want to see our tax rates go up, no coverage for our people and our families or the kids that go to school from all around here, let (the department move), because that's what's going to happen,” Mills said. “It's up to you guys to take care of the citizens> We need to keep the fire department. They need to get it, so let them have it. The fire department's there, and they always said everybody can still use it, so what's the problem?”

Ray Copeland, who helped build the fire station and donated the fill dirt for the property, questioned the purpose for which the city wanted to keep the property on which the station sits.

“Why do y'all really want it?” Copeland asked. “We paid for it. We had fundraisers. The Canley family donated us quite a bit of money to finish paying for it, because we didn't have enough money to buy the land at the time. I donated all the dirt. We built the building. We had the cement poured.”

Mayor Lisa Benavidez responded that the city did not “take the fire department away” from Smiley and that it was an ESD 2 decision to merge the Nixon and Smiley departments.

“That's why the council gave that to the fire department. The city never took anything away from the fire department,” she said. “We know that the ESD did a lot of repairs and gave the money for that fire department, so that's why (the station) was given back to you as well as the trucks.”

Council members then went into an 11-minute executive session to discuss the potential sale of the property. When they came back into open session, Councilmember Melva Childress made the motion to sell the property to ESD 2, which was seconded by Councilmember Diane Moreno. Childress, Moreno and Councilmember Lori Price voted in favor of the motion, while Councilmember Ellis Villasana and Councilmember Daniel Benavidez voted against it.