Contested fire center to locate in Douglas County

Plans to build an interagency fire center on Edmonds Drive near Prison Hill have been dropped in lieu of a site in north Douglas County.

The Plymouth Interagency Facilities site will be on 40 acres of Forest Service land near the intersection of Plymouth Drive and Hobo Hot Springs Road south of Indian Hills.

U.S. Forest Service Fire Manage-ment Officer Mike Wilde said the site will accommodate two barracks for seasonal firefighters from the BLM and Forest Service, as well as hot shot firefighter crews.

"It's great to have a site where we can build something that we all desperately need," Wilde said.

Currently, the BLM does not have a housing facility for seasonal workforce in Carson City. The USFS uses an undersized facility for employees near the Minden Airport, which is run down and no longer suitable for occupancy.

If the Plymouth project moves forward, it would provide office and support buildings for BLM's Silver State Hotshots, a workshop and storage facilities for USFS operations, and parking for agency and employee vehicles.

Dozens of Carson City residents turned out for a public meeting last March to oppose the Edmonds Drive location, mainly citing traffic concerns.

Six other sites were considered but not pursued due to a variety of factors.

BLM District Manager Chris McAlear said some of the homeowners at the new site were worried about lights.

"The Forest Service was able to show them that the lighting design wouldn't have an impact," McAlear said.

The Forest Service's Robert Hickok, who conducted the Environmental Assessment for the Plymouth site, said the decision notice was signed March 12 showing that there was no significant impact for the project.

"We had a few comments - half a dozen or so people wrote in, and we held two public meetings and got comments there," he said.

"We met with BLM last week, and depending on appeals to the decision notice, BLM will handle most of the engineering and we hope to break ground this summer," Hickok said.

"Our next step will be to put together interagency agreements to detail what each agency will contribute," Wilde said.