Fire station expansion project moving ahead after shipping, rain delays

Expansion work on New Albany Fire Station 2 is proceeding after weather and shipping delays.

Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said earlier that they had been waiting on the steel components to arrive but a more immediate problem was that rain was preventing concrete work.

The steel has arrived and the concrete pad for the addition was poured Thursday.

Firefighters have been planning the addition more than a year.

The station was constructed in 1996 and Whiteside said the department has essentially outgrown it. Firefighters have to sleep two to two and one-half feet apart and some of the other facilities are lacking.

The plan was to build a 30 by 60 foot addition to provide a sleeping area, workout area, bathroom and laundry room. The laundry room will allow firefighters returning from a call to remove contaminated clothing without exposing it to other parts of the station.

One estimate for the work was $180,199 but city officials said they could save money by acting as their own contractors and also breaking the job up into smaller segments, although some still might need to be contracted elsewhere.

Fire protection funds can be used for the expansion, which Whiteside said contained no extra bells and whistles. Some of that could be added later but money was sufficient for the present addition.