It took nearly 25 minutes to auction off, but the west side fire station has a new owner.
Charlie Smith was the winning bidder of the west side fire station. (L-R) Dennis Ochs, Charlie Smith, Chuck Burtcher and Randall Shadid
With a gathering of an estimated 40 residents on hand it was Charlie Smith, of Guthrie, with the winning bid of the 1936 building . Smith made the final bid at $59,000 after the bidding started at the appraised value of $51,000.
Voters in Guthrie approved the sale of the fire station back on April 5th. The proposal passed with a total of 179 votes to sell the station, while 45 voters did not want the sale.
Guthrie Mayor and former firefighter Chuck Burtcher was on hand along with City Attorney Randall Shadid and City Clerk Wanda Calvert.
Shadid begun the auction with information on the building and later thank Dennis Ochs and The Ochs Real Estate for their efforts in handling the auction.
The former fire station, which is zoned as a general residential, is 7,000 square feet on a corner lot (13th and Noble) and has a total of 1,824 square feet.
City Manager Matt Mueller said the staff’s recommendation will be to roll the money into next year’s budget and put it towards the dilapidated structure program. City council would need to approve the recommendation.
“Since this is a one-time revenue, we need to ensure that we put it toward a one-time expense so that we do not create reoccurring operating expenses that are unsustainable,” Mueller said.
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