Deciding on a location for a larger North Whidbey Fire and Rescue station is taking a bit longer than the board of commissioners expected.

NWFRS commissioners decided at their regular board meeting Tuesday to hold a workshop Feb. 7 so firefighters and EMS personnel can voice their thoughts about the two proposals.

The first option is to renovate the current Heller Road station to accommodate volunteers working 24-hour shifts and expand the administration offices.

A second option is to purchase and develop land off Highway 20 at Ault Field Road.

“We need to start talking permits if we’re going to do something there, in order to get some actual time frames,” said Fire Chief Marv Koorn. “But it looks like it could be as much as a year to get the permits through.”

Koorn added that he was concerned a station on Highway 20 would make the Taylor Road station obsolete — useful only for training and meetings — due to the close proximity of the two locations.

Commissioner TJ Lamont also noted that volunteers who typically respond to either the Heller Road or Taylor Road stations would all have to respond to the Highway 20 station.

Koorn also voiced concern that it would take significantly longer for volunteers to respond to a proposed Highway 20 location than it currently takes for them to respond to the Heller Road location. That longer response time would likely necessitate making the Highway 20 station a 24-hour station.

Commissioner Ron Muzall wondered how a location on Highway 20 would affect volunteer responders to the Silver Lake station.

Volunteer firefighters attending the meeting brought up concerns about traffic congestion around a proposed Highway 20 station.

“I think if you put it on the highway with Ault Field Road there, you’re going to have a traffic nightmare with people responding into that at busy times of the day, and out of there, and everything else,” one firefighter said.

The commissioners noted that the property has an easement to the rear that would be used for incoming traffic, and a highway exit for outgoing emergency vehicles.

Responding to concerns that a new Highway 20 location could possibly close or consolidate other district stations, Lamont noted, “I think down the road, long-term, that’s what we have to do because I don’t think all these stations are going to be in the right place and you’re going to end up moving.”

Muzzall said, “I guess the one thing I feel pretty strongly about is we need to make a decision at this meeting where we’re going and what we’re doing. I think we’ve put this off long enough and we need to proceed along so we are making some progress.”

“I would be interested to hear what comments our new assistant chief, and operations and medical people have to say about it,” Commissioner Larry Morse said. “Trying to make a decision at this meeting as to where we’re going to build or what we’re going to build is a little premature. I’d like to get more of a chance to look at it and come to a recommendation.”

The commissioners have scheduled a midday workshop Tuesday, Feb. 7 to discuss the issue with other NWFRS personnel, and hope to make their final decision at the regular board meeting scheduled for the following week.

In other business:

• The commissioners discussed replacing the roof of the Silver Lake tower.

• Koorn reported to the commissioners that district duties had been divided up between the chief, assistant chief, operations chief and EMS chief.

• Koorn asked the commissioners to approve a one-day-per-week increase in office assistant hours.

• The commissioners defined the term “reprocessing” regarding the re-hire of volunteer firefighters who have taken leaves of absence longer than six months. Commissioners agreed that firefighters should undergo a new background check and take a new physical before being re-hired.

• Koorn reported that NWFRS office computers were appraised and found to be out-of-date. Approximately $10,000 will be needed to purchase or lease new computers and servers to bring the office up to speed. Commissioners agreed to take the issue under consideration at their next meeting.