Black Mountain relocates police and fire departments in response to facility report

Town council holds emergency meeting to approve temporary relocation to Ridgecrest Conference Center, Acquisition of modular structures

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
March 13, 2026

Black Mountain Fire Chief John Coffey and Police Chief Steve Parker discuss relocation of of the town’s first responders, March 12, at an emergency meeting of the town council. Photo by Fred McCormick

Town of Black Mountain first responders will temporarily relocate from the public safety building at 106 Montreat Road to a residence hall in the Ridgecrest Conference Center, following a March 12 emergency special call meeting of the town council.

The board, with Ryan Stone and Alice Berry absent, unanimously approved the move, while directing town staff to pursue the purchase of a used modular unit and a lease for a secondary structure.

The decision came in response to a facility report, presented March 10, detailing structural deficiencies in the town’s public safety building. The assessment, performed by a team of architects and engineers, concluded the 12,000-square-foot facility, constructed in 1987, would require substantial capital improvement to strengthen the integrity of the structure.

In response to a direct question from interim town manager Richard Hicks, the professional opinion of the architect who delivered the report was the building, with an estimated cost of $2.2 million in deferred maintenance, was not safe for occupancy.

“After the meeting on Monday night, we started hearing from staff about their concerns for the building,” said Hicks, as the emergency meeting began. “There are some significant concerns as we move forward, if we take no action.”

Moving personnel out of the building was in the town’s best interest, the interim manager added.

Black Mountain Fire Chief John Coffey and Police Chief Steve Parker provided elected officials with options they explored in the hours after the presentation of the facility report.

“Since Tuesday morning, we have been diligently trying to come up with solutions to this problem,” Coffey said. “We’ve reached out to most of the nonprofits in the area, such as (YMCA) Blue Ridge Assembly, Ridgecrest and various others to come up with solutions to the housing issue.”

Exploring potential short- and long-term accommodations has been the primary focus of the public safety chiefs in recent days, according to Parker.

“We don’t know what the council and mayor is going to do, but we know there has to be some repairs and we know we’re not going to be able to be in the building during those repairs, regardless,” the police chief said. “So, we have to think, whatever you end up deciding, what does a two- or three-month stay look like, or a longer, two-year or two-and-half-year stay?”

Representatives from the departments met with conference centers and a commercial real estate broker in an effort to identify potential options, he added.

“Ridgecrest is willing to work with us,” Parker said. “They’re willing to shut down a whole hallway that has 14 rooms. Each room has two bedrooms, and we would work with them to remove furniture and put offices there.”

The location, the police chief continued, presents challenges regarding response times and parking for vehicles.

“We feel like that’s more of a temporary two- to three-month solution,” Parker said.

The town is currently exploring the acquisition of a triple-wide modular building from the City of Hendersonville, which utilized the unit while awaiting construction of a new fire station.

“It was a $250,000 modular building, and they’re willing to sell it to us for $50,000, which is a big deal,” Parker said. “That could be something that is immediate, as we work toward more permanent housing until a final solution is done. We also feel like one modular home is not going to do it.”

The chief requested the town enter a lease agreement for a secondary modular structure.

While Ridgecrest offers the optimal immediate short-term solution, according to Parker, the modular facilities would provide long-term accommodations. Use of the mobile structures will require the town to close Honeycutt, a one-way street in front of the town’s public safety building, to the public.

The positioning would allow room for responding vehicles to enter and exit, according to the chief.

“We have to be able to meet our state-required guidelines for response,” Coffey said. “So, one of the ideas was to have a site area as close as possible to the existing station 1.”

Fire vehicles are housed in an uncompromised area of the public safety building, allowing the department to protect the equipment from the impacts of weather.

“I can’t have a truck outside in freezing temperatures, because it will damage and ruin the pump,” Coffey said.

Placing modular facilities near the public safety building would support logistical considerations, according to the police chief.

“There is a lot of equipment that we might not be able to move, but if we had to, in an emergency, we could get to it,” Parker said. “From my understanding, the bays are not in danger, so we could keep the trucks heated. There is a power, water and sewer right there next to the restrooms, so we could strategically place those (modular units) so we can enter and exit.”

The first priority, according to the interim manager, is to relocate all personnel who sleep in the public safety building. The facility at Ridgecrest, which includes beds and showers, offers the most immediate solution, he added.

Asheville-based engineering firm McGill Associates is currently in the process of coordinating soil samples around the public safety building to determine the cause of floor settling observed in the facility assessment. No timeline has been established for potential repairs.

While structural deficiencies were detected in the main structure and visible cracks have been observed on the floor of the bays, the area in which fire equipment is stored is excluded from the evacuation, according to the public safety chiefs.

The immediate relocation to Ridgecrest, according to Coffey, will allow personnel to remain at the station during the day and sleep in the conference center’s residence hall.

“During the day, they will be doing what they normally do,” he said. “Once the weather is favorable again, they will go there at night and respond from there.”

The safety of police and fire personnel is the top priority for the town council, according to Doug Hay.

“It was a wake-up call for council, maybe not for you guys who are living in the building everyday, on Monday night,” he said. “Taking immediate is an obvious choice for me.”