by Mark McDeermott and Elka Worner
The City of Manhattan Beach took special pride in unveiling its newly constructed MBFD Fire Station 2 last Wednesday. The $9.1 million, state-of-the-art facility replaced a nearly 70-year-old outdated fire station. The new facility’s ribbon cutting was the culmination of a nearly seven year effort that came to financial fruition during the depths of the pandemic.
MBFD Chief Michael Lang told a crowd of about 100 people who attended the grand opening of Fire Station 2 that the new building makes a statement about the city of Manhattan Beach.
“This new fire station shows the commitment the council and community has shown to public safety,” Lang said. “It improves our morale and gives us a sense of pride.”
Mayor Richard Mongomery said the new fire station was “the envy of everyone around us” and noted that, unlike the former station, it was equipped with scrubbers that will make the air firefighters breathe cleaner, extracting the harmful chemicals emitted by diesel engines.
“But this is not just for firefighters,” Montgomery said. “It’s for all of us. It shows commitment. The citizens say we want to make public safety our number one issue. So this is our number one issue. You put your money where your mouth is.”
The new fire station, at 9,116 sq. ft., is nearly three times as large as the former station, which was torn down to make way for the new building. It includes locker rooms for male and female firefighters, and office space for firefighters to perform their administrative duties. The new building is also earthquake-proof, includes a shop area for working on equipment, and is large enough to fit modern fire fighting apparatus.
The station, located at 1400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, houses three to six firefighters and serves East Manhattan. The mayor noted that the downtown fire station could not provide response times that met the needs of residents on the east side.
“A fire truck has to get from City Hall to here, and how long does that take?” Montgomery asked.
“Too long,” the audience replied.
“Right. So if you’re on this side of the city, every second counts, every few seconds count,” Montgomery said. “So it wasn’t a question of, ‘Are we going to do it?’ It was a question of, ‘How are we going to do it?”
City Manager Bruce Moe said the completion of the project was a challenging effort that engaged several departments within the City.
“The path that led to this was not an easy one, as the mayor alluded to,” Moe said. “It took tenacity and a shared vision. But look around. This is what collaboration looks like, the City of Manhattan Beach. It looks like progress. It looks like a safer community. It looks like the future.”
Moe singled out finance director Steve Charelian, who led the effort in creatively financing the new station by using an array of tools. The City took advantage of historically low interest rates to take out Pension Obligation Bonds (POBs) that essentially allowed it to refinance employee pension costs owed to CalPERs and save between $1.1 million and $4.4 million annually. The station was largely funded through the sale of Certificates of Participation (COPs). Taken together, these mechanisms enabled the construction of a facility the City had known for more than a decade was needed but was previously unable to finance.
This plan came together and was approved by the council in 2021, four years after naming the new station the city’s highest capital improvement priority.
“It was an interesting time to be financing, during the pandemic,” Moe said.
Lang said the station will make firefighters’ day-to-day lives better and elevate the level of service they are able to provide.
“Firefighters sacrifice time away from their families in order to serve the community when the need arises,” he said. “Without hesitation, they rush into danger….The station symbolizes the City and the council’s commitment to our firefighters and public safety. In order to do our job and give us the best tools possible, and considering that this building has the most advanced technology to date — it will help us do our job so much better.”
The building was completed on time and under budget. The council authorized $9.4 million for the project.
“As we unveil the new fire station today, we not only celebrate this new building, we are celebrating the spirit of public services deeply ingrained in the City of Manhattan Beach culture,” Moe said. “We celebrate our firefighters who risk their lives every day to protect us. And we’re celebrating our city staff, who worked tirelessly to ensure that this project was completed with the highest standards.” ER
