Sycamore Fire Chief Bart Gilmore and City Manager Michael Hall explained the need for a new fire station at this week’s Rotary meeting. Gilmore and Hall came prepared with videos and slides showing the challenges the fire service faces operating in their 66-year-old downtown building. Fire station #1 was built in 1957 and originally housed a volunteer department handling 89 calls a year as well as the police department and city hall. Today the department is staffed by full-time firemen and handles over 3.000 calls a year. The building was modified for only fire service use but the aging heating and cooling systems are failing and coupled with poor air quality factors mean unhealthy working conditions exist. Gilmore noted that power-operated bay doors have failed at times, adding critical delayed response to fire calls. Gilmore also said there are height restrictions in the garage bays which added about $100,000 in modification costs to a new fire engine. He said the height restrictions also preclude adding a much-needed aerial ladder truck to their fleet.
Gilmore and Hall said several options were reviewed but an offer of a land donation by Ideal Industries makes building a new station the best long-term plan for the City. The land is at the southwest corner of Borden Avenue and South Prairie Drive in the South Prairie Business Park. Gilmore says the location will better balance call assignments with Fire Station #2 on the north side of town. He also said the approximately 6-acre site would let the fire department develop a fire safety campus including a “safety town” for children. Hall said the City can structure finances so that an estimated $10 million in construction bonds for the new building can be paid as other bonds expire without any property tax increase. Rotarians were invited to follow developments of he fire project at www.cityofsycamore.com/newstation.