Three years after declaring the Custer fire station “surplus,” North Whatcom Fire and Rescue is making progress toward selling the station and has hired local real estate broker Mike Kent to market the property.
Not everyone agrees with the decision – fire commissioner Dean Berkeley made a push in recent months to reconsider the sale over concerns about future population growth.
The Custer station hasn’t been staffed for years, but with nearby Birch Bay projected to grow by more than 5,000 residents in the next 20 years, Berkeley thinks the decision to sell is premature.
“I can’t see selling a station for a measly $350,000 and then five or 10 years down the road having to build a new one for a couple million,” he said.
Berkeley made a motion to revisit the decision at an April 21 board of commissioners meeting, but the other fire commissioners wouldn’t discuss it.
“It could have at least been discussed,” Berkeley said. “It’s appalling to me that it wasn’t.”
Berkeley campaigned for fire commissioner on a platform of not selling the Custer station, he said, and he narrowly beat 18-year incumbent Roger Hawley.