A new downtown fire station could be the latest addition to the city of Portage in a couple years.
During a presentation at a joint workshop of the Portage City Council and Redevelopment Commission last week, representatives from the Portage Fire Department indicated that the current Station No. 3, which was built in 1967, “no longer meets the current and future needs to serve the community.” The existing station presents struggles such as limited clearance, retro-fit construction and shared functions.
“The biggest importance for the fire department is to allow us to shuffle our apparatus,” said Tom Fieffer, Portage Fire Chief. “When the three stations we currently have were put together, city looked a lot different than today. The tower at Station 2 was there when that was built in 1978, when the only tall buildings we had were at the steelmill, making it the perfect place at the time. But now we have the High School, the Hospital and all the retail on Route 6. So now the tower being at far north end is not the best place for it.”
The new plan, which places the station in between SPC Adam Harting Way and PFC Steven Sirko Way right off Central Avenue, Fieffer said, will make it “more centrally located.”
“This will give us the ability to respond to all areas quicker and in most cases reduce response time,” he said.
The new station is part of a larger city project that will encompass upgrades to the city’s police station and as well as general improvements in the downtown area. All under one umbrella, the three projects will only take shape if bonds are approved by both the Redevelopment Commission and City Council. Fieffer said the bond the fire department has asked for is in the amount of $4 million, the cost estimated by DLZ design group, who designed the proposed new station.
DLZ’s designs are for wholesale improvements from the current station No. 3. The apparatus area will increase from 2,500 square foot to 5,176 and the living area will see a substantial increase from 1,600 square foot to 6,927. This equates to 1,729 square foot per firefighter with seven firefighters at first and 1,100 square feet for a team of 11 firefighters.
Goals and objectives of the new fire station, as presented during the joint workshop, include enhancing public safety and service to the community, improving operational efficiency and serving as an urban setting catalyst for downtown development.
If approved and constructed, the new station will at first be the workplace of seven firefighters and four equipment vehicles, but will eventually expand to house 11 firefighters as the city grows and cross-staffing no longer becomes an option. The new station plans to staff Engine 3, Rescue 3, Fire 5 and be the sight of the new tower.
“As the city grows, the plan is for downtown to be all 2-3 story buildings, so when downtown is a bustle of people we won’t just cross-staff it, we will actually fully staff it,” Fieffer explained.
As of now, pending approvals, the plan is to release the project for bid on September 26 and award it to a construction company in October, with the target date of October 2015 being set for substantial completion.
“The fire department and DLZ has done everything it can at this point to make sure this happens," Fieffer said, adding that DLZ designs similar projects often and is “confident” in the $4 million estimate.
For Fieffer, it all comes down to how the department can continue to best serve the community. The enhancements at the two-story new station, which include 25 parking spaces, landscaping buffers and screens and an operations and watch office on the first floor, will allow the department to “continue to work to improve our services for the citizens,” Fieffer said.