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More than a year and a half after accepting bids on an addition to Central Station Lansing Fire Commissioners anticipate they will get the final OK to use the facility next week at the latest.  Commissioners originally hoped the $2.3 million project would be complete last January, but construction delays, a leaky roof and municipal paperwork held up the project.

"It was municipal -- you've got government money, prevailing wages, this contractor, that contractor," says Chief Scott Purcell.  "Everybody's responsible for a little bit.  I think we're going to end up with a nice facility.  It's probably going to be worth the wait.  All in all I think we're going to do alright with it."

Fire Commissioners had originally hoped the project would be completed by January.  In March they expressed some frustration at municipal construction laws that seemed to be holding up the completion of the addition.  Construction was largely finished around April.  A temporary CO (Certificate Of Occupancy) was issued by the Town building inspector that excluded use of the bunking rooms and kitchen.


The 300 square foot project adds an additional equipment bay, a decontamination room, exercise room, emergency medical storage, and space for up to twelve live-in firefighters.  Voters approved the project 99-69 in September, 2009.  Most of the addition has been used since around April but, with a leaky roof and no fire alarm, the bunking rooms and kitchen were not OKed for use, especially overnight use.

Bunking rooms are a major component of the addition.  Bunkers get a free room in a fire station in return for being there to respond to emergencies faster than other volunteers who typically have to come to the station from work or home to pick up equipment before responding.  The old bunking rooms in the 30 year old fire station were no longer up to code and it has been some years since bunkers have occupied them.

District officials have been working on a new bunking policy while waiting for the new facility, in an attempt to get in front of a new initiative to attract bunkers to live at Central Station.  The addition has ten rooms capable of holding twelve bunkers.  A new fire station in the Village of Lansing will have room for five more.  Construction on that facility is scheduled to begin next week.

But without a CO for the addition the initiative has been stymied for the past five months.  As of Tuesday three items were left to be completed before a CO could be issued: sprinklers, an alarm system, and a leaky roof.  While plumbing was completed for the sprinklers in April, it had not been hooked up and as of Tuesday's Fire Commissioners meeting a flow switch that senses when the sprinklers go on and calls 911 in case of fire had yet to be wired into the alarm system.  The fire alarm activates if a fire breaks out in the building, and is not part of the system that calls responders to emergencies.  That system has been operational throughout the construction project.


Tuesday evening department members pulled the ladder truck out of the bay and used it to bring a hose up to the roof in an attempt to find the leak.  Though it rained Tuesday, there was not enough water volume to make it drip.  Fire fighters soaked the roof to help identify the source.

With the contractor on-site to fix the roof and the flow switch scheduled to be wired into the system this week, Commissioners say they expect to receive the final CO no later than next week.  Purcell says that two emergency responders have expressed a definite interest in moving into the facility, with a third considering becoming a bunker.  He says he is waiting for the facility to be OKed before actively recruiting bunkers, but his aim is to fill all 12 beds.  When the Village of Lansing fire station is completed it will have facilities for five more, which he also hopes to fill.  At first he says he may move bunkers from Central Station to fill the space in the Village station.

"You put your people where you know they're going to be used all the time," he says.  "Over 50% of our calls are in the Village.  Of those probably 60% are EMS calls.  A lot of the businesses are in the Village so we need to have the equipment down there.  I think that once that station is built there will be more interest down there.  There are restaurants and the mall close by."

The old Village fire station was demolished because it had deteriorated to the point where it would have been condemned, and because it was not big enough to store modern fire equipment.  Purcell says that over the next four or five years the new station will house  one pumper-tanker, a quint (a ladder truck that can also pump water), and an EMS vehicle.

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