Meeting on Siting New Finn Hill Fire Station Now Set for Feb. 8

The public meeting by the city of Kirkland on siting a new centralized fire station on Finn Hill, first scheduled for Jan. 18 but canceled due to snow, has now been set for Wednesday, Feb. 8.

It will be at Finn Hill Junior High (8040 NE 132nd) beginning at 7 p.m.

There are now two small stations on Finn Hill, Finn Hill Station 24 and Holmes Point Station 25. But the city wants to build one larger station in a more centralized location to improve response times and reduce costs. Operations at Station 24 had been limited to part-time volunteer EMT services, but the city . However, on Monday the city announced it would resume volunteer EMT operations there due to concerns expressed by the community.

The two fire stations on Finn Hill, an area that became part of Kirkland on June 1 through annexation, were previously operated by the city through a contract with King County Fire District 41. District 41 commissioners and the city have for years planned to consolidate the two stations into one larger, more centrally located station.

District 41’s preferred location was inside Big Finn Hill Park, for a station estimated to cost $4.5 million near the intersection of Juanita Drive and Northeast 138th Street. But it proved unpopular with residents, many of them saying the process had not been open to the public enough and expressing strident opposition during a March public meeting; see a.

With annexation, Fire District 41 was dissolved and the city took on the search for a new station location, in July hiring an architectural consultant, TCA Architecture-Planning Inc. Kirkland Fire Department officials, city staff and TCA representatives will attend the meeting.