Excerpts from the Dailyherald.com:

The Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District is asking voters to give them permission to borrow $4.5 million on Nov. 6.

Fire Station 1 is outdated which makes getting from the second-floor living space to the apparatus floor an unnecessarily long and potentially dangerous journey, according to Fire Chief Greg Formica. Station 1 was constructed in 1946 to be used by a small volunteer crew. In the 72 years since, the population of the 15-square-mile district has jumped to about 53,000 people.

Now a crew of 7 to 8 firefighters stay in the building 24 hours a day. Firefighters stays in a converted space on the second floor far from the trucks. While there is a fire pole, it isn’t in a good location so the firefighters use the stairs.

They would solve the issue by building a new living area on the first floor next to the apparatus bay. Other building issues that the borrowed money would address include leaky roofs and patchy parking lots at several district stations.

The district doesn’t have detailed plans drawn up yet, but they paid an architect to help estimate the cost of the Station 1 plan and other projects they hope to fund. They haven’t gone to voters for a referendum since 1979, and that was to provide ambulance service.

The Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District includes most or all of Round Lake, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Heights, and Hainesville.