Posts Tagged fire department seeks funding for capital improvements

Greater Round Lake FPD news (more)

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 Among the concerns district officials hope to address is the outdated, inefficient layout of Station 1, which was built in 1946.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.

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Greater Round Lake FPD news

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Fire Station 1 is outdated which makes getting from the second-floor living space to the apparatus floor an unnecessarily long and potentially dangerous journey, according to Fire Chief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.

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