After nearly two decades of searching, Eastside Fire & Rescue may have a home for station 72, that is, if the voters OK it.

The City of Issaquah has put a $4.5 million bond on the Nov. 4 ballot to help pay for the construction of the station. The bond would cost citizens 5.77 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For a $500,000 home, this would be $28.85 per year.

“It’s been on the drawing board since the mid-80s,” said Wes Collins, Deputy Chief of Planning. “It’s gone through three chiefs. It’s time to get something built.”

Station 72 was originally planned for the Pickering Place development, where Tully’s currently is on 12th, Collins said. However, the plans made a station at that location unfeasible, so the department sold the land.

Next up was where the Hilton now sits, however, at the last minute the council voted against the project. The department then tried a joint venture at Tibbitts Creek Manor, but the project didn’t go through due to wetlands.

“It was strike three,” Collins said. “And we still needed a station.”

In 2000 the department, by then Eastside Fire and Rescue, began leasing the land from Rowley Properties at the end of Maple Street, and a temporary station was put in. The station, which cost about $500,000, consists of a double wide trailer and a two-bay station.

It’s usable, but has gone beyond its original five-year lifespan.

“It’s easily maintained,” said Lt. Dave Jones, who has been stationed out of 72 for five years. “It’s comfortable, it’s homey. It meets our needs.”

However, Jones and the other firefighters at the station admit that won’t be the case too much longer. Already the station is one of the busier stations in the department, averaging four to five calls a day. Most of their calls are during the weekdays when the businesses are open, Jones said.

When the city’s planned mixed use development goes through, there will be much more pressure on station 72, something that the current station couldn’t keep up, officials said.

“Due to growth we’re going to be forced out of here,” Jones said.

The new station would be able to accommodate that growth. The current station can house up to four firefighters. The proposed station would house nine, or two crews.

The proposed new location came about after the transit center project began in 2005. The city of Issaquah put $1 million into the transit center to buy the land.

The city will pay another $1.5 million — some of which is leftover from selling the original proposed land, District 10 has pledged $2 million (about 15 percent of the calls Station 72 responds to are in District 10) and the remainder will be covered by the bond, which could be as much as $4.5 million. The total cost will be $7.5 to $8 million.

The new three-bay station would feature a decontamination area, protective clothing storage for fire gear, community areas and will be built green. The council had originally requested that the station be zero energy, similar to the zHomes in the Issaquah Highlands.

The current plan has the structure at 80 percent of the zero energy. This will include design ideas such as super insulation, ground source heat pump (geothermal heating), heat exchangers to reuse the heat, high efficiency appliances, light sensors to tell which room is in use and individual space temperature controls. All these additions added about $300,000 to the total cost of the project.

Solar panels are planned but currently too expensive, so they would be added at a later date once the price of the technology drops, Collins said.

Opponents of the ballot measure take to task the location of station, saying that it limits the expansion of the transit center for the future.

“Any proposed fire station must be located to not constrain future growth of the Transit Center. There is no benefit in locating a fire station at the Transit Center. Firemen don’t ride a bus to a fire,” reads the “con” statement in the voter’s pamphlet. The statement was prepared by Dick Buckwitz.

Buckwitz also points to the close proximity to Fire Station 71, at just 1.9 miles away and the headquarters station at 1.3 miles.