By Kyle Siegel
Staff writer
As of Tuesday, July 10, the City of Sedalia and the Sedalia Fire Department are one step closer to being able to build a brand new fire station on the west side of town, when Missouri legislature passed House Bill 1820.
House Bill 1820 did several things for the state, and one of those was to allow the Fire Department to use Missouri National Guard land to extend an easement between the two entities.
“In order to modify or build a new fire station, we had to get a larger easement from the State of Missouri.
“We share property lines with the Missouri National Guard on state owned property. Our plans are to construct a new fire station on land we already have a fire station on. We have had one there since 1971,” Sedalia Fire Chief Mike Ditzfield said.
Ditzfield added more information about House Bill 1820.
“It was packaged with several other bills. What this legislation, that was just signed yesterday, it grants us a permanent easement for approximately 50 percent of the land that is out there. The Missouri National Guard will occupy the remaining land that is our there,” Ditzfield said.
With the bill being passed yesterday, Ditzfield was asked when it would go into effect.
“We are not real sure when it will formally be effective. It should come into effect on August 28,” he said.
Ditzfield was asked if anyone was instrumental in helping get the bill passed.
“We couldn’t have gotten it done without the sponsorship of State Representative Stanley Cox and Senator Mike Parsons,” Ditzfield said.
He added, “They worked very diligently with this. We are very much appreciative.”
In order for the projected $3.7 million project to proceed, the Sedalia City Council must make the final approval. The final decision will be made at the July 16 council meeting.
The Sedalia Fire Department has been working on the project since 2010.
“We finally introduced it as something we wanted to put on the time line back in 2010,” Ditzfield said.
