On March 11, the Herndon Town Council unanimously approved a resolution that will help to jump-start negotiations with the county in implementing a new fire station in the Herndon Police Department building.

This is only the very beginning of this process, said Lisa Gilleran, director of the Department of Community Development. This resolution is really just providing Fairfax County with the comfort level that they need to pursue additional feasibility studies.

Now the Town's focus is shifting to the financial considerations of allowing the county to set up shop in its building.

The county's plan is for a one-story, 14,500-square-foot station with drive-through bays and separate women's facilities to be located at 397 Herndon Parkway, a Town-owned building already housing the Herndon Police Department.

According to Gilleran, the property is currently zoned office and light industrial and would not need to be rezoned to accommodate the fire station. A special exception and Architectural Review Board approval would still be required, however.

As proposed, the architectural footprint of the building would change very little with the firehouse proposal, Gilleran told the council.

We are getting e-mails, phone calls and letters that are supportive of the site, Assistant Fire Chief Daryl Louder said.

Louder plans to request funding for the station implementation in the November public facilities bond.

Let's talk about the bonds the Town of Herndon issued back in December 2003, said Herndon Director of Finance Mary Tuohy during her turn at the podium.

Tuohy told the council that $8.5 million in bonds were issued for the property, which is split between the police and the remaining offices being leased to commercial tenants.

The closing on the building was in February 2004, she said. Bonds were issued in two amounts; $3.8 million in a taxable issue for the commercial side of the building, and a tax-exempt bond issue of $4.7 million for the police facility.

Tuohy said the Town still owes about $2.6 million on the $3.8 million taxable bond issue. We issued these as revenue bonds so we could lease out the building to other, private, entities, she said.

According to Tuohy, rental income from the commercial leases makes up about 93 percent of the combined bond debt and operating costs of maintaining the rental offices.

She also said those bonds are expected to be paid off by 2014.

Obviously, when the bonds get fully paid off, it will make a lot more, she said of the building's value as an investment. We need to think about the revenue potential of this building. The minimum amount the Town should be interested in [ from the county] should be the amount of money we need to pay off the bond issue. Tuohy later said that she is in the process of finding a qualified assessor to establish a fair market value for the property.

Fairfax County's real estate tax assessment for 2008 lists the total property value, including the police station, at $10,291,360.