Temple has the people, and for the most part has the equipment and the facilities. Central Station, though, is inadequate, the consultants say. The 44-year-old building that houses the station and administration offices at 305 N. Third St. is past its prime. The overall review from Emergency Services Consulting Inc. (ESCi) was “the condition of Central Station was classed as poor,” stating it was extremely small for current use.

The ESCi study was completed late in 2007. The company was hired by the city to conduct an evaluation and analysis of its fire service and EMS delivery system.

Let’s take a walking tour of the facilities.

Entering the reception area feels like walking into someone’s personal office - you nearly land on a desk.

There is no room for seating and you soon learn how to play dodge with any other person in the room if you don’t want your toes to be stepped on.

When you get down to it, a reception area really doesn’t exist, but a pleasant receptionist does.

Photocopy machines are set up in hallways and paper for those are farther down the hall in a breakroom.

Leaving the reception area it takes nine or 10 steps to land in Chief Lonzo Wallace’s office, which doubles as a conference room and offers very little privacy for his job.

Meandering through the labyrinth of administrative offices you immediately notice the cluttered conditions - equipment pulled out of boxes with no place to be stored.

Boxes line the walls of the training room, wiring comes out of the ceiling and reenters in places it shouldn’t. Every spare inch of the walls are lined with more boxes containing a multitude of requirements for emergency situations and public information.

“The boxes here (in the training room) have disaster packs in them for use in shelters if they need to be set up in town,” said Thomas Pechal, Temple Fire and Rescue public information officer.

Down the hall the deputy chiefs’ offices are piled with paperwork in an organized fashion. Whiteboards on the walls list the shifts and shift members.

The walls of the hallway behind the engine bays are lined with memorabilia - photographs of past and present firefighters, portraits and pictures of them fighting fires, all reminding current staff of what their job is about.

The ESCi report takes note of the lack of storage, in these offices as well as in the living areas and apparatus bays.

Gear worn by firefighters is stored in the bay area in small cupboards apparently designed for something else. The firefighters’ clothing should be stored in a well ventilated area separate from all other storage and from exposure to sunlight and contaminants, the ESCi report said.

Gym equipment sits smack dab in the middle of the sleeping quarters - which in turn offers very little, if any, privacy to firefighters who need to catch some shuteye when they work 24-hour shifts. Facilities for female firefighters do not officially exist. Unofficially, there’s a lock on the bathroom door.The kitchen is dated - and while it works, the surroundings are hardly aesthetically appealing, but this is the area where firefighters at Central Station prepare and eat meals three times a day.

The living area doubles as a presentation area, an area to sort through large boxes and a few other things - but first the chairs need to be moved out of the way.

As the ESCi report said, “it’s too small.”

Central Station was built in 1964 and was probably state-of-the art for the day, said Jim Boyd of Friends of Temple Fire and Rescue, a local political action committee.

But Temple is, and continues to be, a thriving and growing community, and “we’ve outgrown the station,” Boyd said.

Trucks built today are larger than those of years gone by.

Rarely, if ever, is there a break in traffic on Third Street long enough to back the trucks into the bay without disruption.

Everytime an engine returns to the station from a call there’s a danger to traffic and pedestrians. The large engines have to block both north and southbound lanes of North Third Street to reverse into the parking bays.

The ESCi report said “access to the street by the apparatus is inadequate. The setback from the street requires apparatus to back into the fire station; with the amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, this can lead to an unsafe condition.”

Parking for visitors to the station often spills onto the nearby streets.

“A location for the new station hasn’t been decided yet,” Pechal said, “It will, however, remain in the downtown area.”

Costs for relocation and to build the new central station and headquarters is figured at $7.175 million and is a major chunk of the total $13.995 million bond to be voted on May 10. The remainder will pay to build a new Training Center combined with a Emergency Operations Center and Station 8.

The new station will be equipped with a new engine and airpacks. The facility will be located in northwest Temple.Engines 1 and 4 are also in need of replacement and lastly the bond issuance cost.