Ugly radio antennae irks neighbors.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
After three years of design planning, there will be a new fire station that will serve the northern end of Malibu. Fire Station 56 housed its first fire fighting inhabitants Tuesday this week before it officially opens next Tuesday. The station will include a staff of three full-time fire fighters and two engineers.
The station replaces an old building that was not originally built to serve as a fire station.
“It’s a very nice fire station,” Bill Nash of the Ventura County Fire Department said. “It has ample room should we need to stage a strike team, an exercise facility, office space, sleep area, shop area and wash area.”
The station is technically part of Ventura County, as its location (adjacent to Neptune’s Net on Ellice Street and Pacific Coast Highway) is about one mile north of the line that divides it from Los Angeles County.
“We’ve had a fire station in the Malibu area of Ventura County for decades, but it was housed in a building that wasn’t designed for a fire station,” Nash said. “[The old building was] very cramped and tough for firefighters.”
Nash spoke of the old fire station located one quarter of a mile away from Station 56, comprised of a single building with limited facilities on land leased to Ventura County by Crown Point Developers.
“The lease on the old station is up,” Nash said. “It [relocating and building a new fire station] had to happen anyway. Station 56 is right off PCH in a much better location. It’s more convenient for the public, should they need to go there.”
A controversial aspect of the construction of Station 56 was the implementation of an enormous radio antenna, also called a “monopole,” that sits on the same property, blocking the ocean view of residents behind it. Community meetings addressing wildfire preparedness held at the newly completed station concluded that it could not effectively operate without the antenna due to poor communicative levels.
“That part of the coast line had very difficult radio communication, to the extent that sometimes our radio communication couldn’t communicate with dispatch,” Nash explained, adding that the monopole has greatly improved radio communication with other emergency-related units, which is especially critical when fire fighters are called to the scenes of automotive accidents, surf rescues or mountain wildfires.
Michael Jenkins, one of three fire captains at Station 56 (the others are Alex Sanchez and Lowell Edgar), agreed. “It’s ugly. It could have been put somewhere else, but our department was adamant that it was going to remain on our property,” he said.
“I believe the original design was an uglier, more obtrusive monopole, but they improved it. It looked like an archaic, erector set antenna,” Jenkins said. “Regardless, if you have a nice home, it’s one thing to see roof tops, but another to see this thing. I understand it’s ugly.”
Fire captain Jayd Swendseid of Malibu Fire Station 99, at 32550 PCH, has not yet visited the new station but said he imagines it is a state-of-the-art facility.
“All fire stations benefit residents,” Swendseid said. “Even though they’re Ventura County, they will help us if we need them, and we will help them if they need us.
“We’re happy anytime we get a new station or add personnel,” he added. “And they’re only four and a half miles away. “
An official opening party for Fire Station 56 will take place at the station on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and will include speeches by Linda Parks of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and Fire Chief Bob Roper, refreshments and tours of the station for the public.