SKIATOOK, Okla. — The city of Skiatook’s first responders are asking the community to help them get new facilities.
The Fire Chief said they’ve run out of space at their station. Every square inch of space is used up with equipment and storage. They even have to park one of their vehicles outside.
Fire Chief Jams Annas said the firefighters and their equipment are all squashed in together.
“Every space is some place we have something plugged in every square inch,” Annas said. “We’ve got boxes on top of other equipment.”
Annas also explained there’s no room to expand, and moving fire trucks and equipment costs them time when they’re responding to an emergency.
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At the police station, FOX23 learned the building is 82-years-old. Police Chief Billy Wakefield said it’s time to modernize.
“It’s dilapidated. We’re in a dinosaur,” Wakefield told FOX23. “It’s 82-years-old, and it’s time we get caught up to the 21st century with a new facility.”
The roof leaks, 3 officers have to squeeze around one desk in a 9x10′ room with no heat and air and the jail cells are so old that when the toilets break they have to get parts specially manufactured because they don’t make them anymore.
Wakefield explained that, at the entrance, there’s only one sitting area for visitors to the station. If a sex offender comes in, they’ll have to sit with families in the same area due to spacing.
There’s no room for expansion at either station. They’ve used all the space.
Both police and fire chiefs said, as the city grows, first responders’ resources need to grow with it.
They want to build a new police and fire station and fund them with an increase in the sales tax.
It would be a one penny sales tax, which means for every dollar you spend in the Skiatook city limits, it will cost you a penny in sales tax.
The Skiatook City Manager Brad White said other taxes are already spoken for.
“We have two cents that goes into our general fund,” White explained. “The other pennies are already spoken for as far as road projects and things like that. We’re very limited on what we can do with other tax, and there’s just not enough money to find everything.”
White also said the city sales tax at the moment is one of the lowest in Green Country at 3.5 percent.
“This would lift it to our city sales tax would be 4.5 percent, which would be … if you look in the scale of things, we’re right in the margin where a lot of cities are already at,” White explained.
There is a vote to decide if the community wants to go ahead with this tax on August 23.
There is a public meeting Thursday night in the Skiatook Council Chambers at the police station at 6:30 p.m. for people to ask questions about the tax.
Anyone interested can check their website for more information.
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