Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
Voters Tuesday overwhelmingly supported the Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District’s request to borrow $4.5 million to modernize facilities and equipment. Now, the district is putting the money to use.
The district asked to borrow the money primarily to modernize and maintain fire stations. Among the concerns district officials hope to address is the outdated, inefficient layout of Station 1, which was built in 1946. Currently, the crew stays in a converted space on the second floor, far from the apparatus. They want to redesign the building so they can have the crew quarters next to the apparatus bay to speed up response times and eliminate a potentially dangerous middle-of-the-night rush from the beds to the trucks.
District officials had already hired an architect to help estimate the cost of the Station 1 plan. Now that the money is on its way they will form a committee and devise a plan. They will tackle projects that don’t involve construction first, including putting a new roof on Station 3 and upgrading the sleeping quarters in Station 2.
The district already has a head start on ordering a new truck funded by the $4.5 million. They went out to bid and, with voters’ approval, the work to custom build the truck will begin.
