City Council discusses plans for new fire station
Tristan Isham & Aliah Keller
Tuesday, April 22, 2019 – The city council of Streetsboro held its last regular city council meeting and Finance Committee meetings of April on Monday. The city council, mayor, and members of the Finance Committee discussed multiple initiatives, including plans for Streetsboro’s new fire house, the addition of a shed for the city’s park department, and condensing credit agreements with local realtors.
The Finance Committee meeting extended for more than two hours and the regular city council meeting, which introduced initiatives to purchase camera’s for police squad cars, and materials for city construction projects, had each initiative suspended to a later date.
The main focus of the finance meeting was finalizing plans for the construct of a new fire house, part of the city’s City-Center Project. The City Center Project contains plans to construct a new city wellness center, city hall and the fire house.
The proposed site, directly south of the current fire house on State Route 43, is owned by the city and the project is estimated to cost the city approximately $5.23 million.
“Right now, [Streetsboro doesn’t] have a downtown area,” says Streetsboro Mayor, Glenn Broska. “Streetsboro was never built with a downtown, and we really feel that when this project is completed it’s going to give the community more of a sense of identity. It will be a gathering area with the city wellness center, with city hall, with the fire station and every professional planner and architect that we’ve spoken with said that when a city invests in itself the way that we’re doing—by doing this particular project—the people that benefit us in new ways see this, and are more apt to come.”
The current fire station has 7,000 sqft. of bays where equipment, including fire trucks are stored. The new station, according to Broska, will increase that to 10,000 sqft.
“The officers actually have their offices in where they sleep,” says Broska about the current fire station. “The first floor is what we’ll call the functional floor, which will be the chief’s office, the assistant chief’s office [..] All the areas that are the day to day function of the fire department.”
Broska says the second floor will contain living quarters, with individual dorms for firefighters, a day room, locker room and dining area.
The City Center Project is not secure unless the city of Streetsboro passes new levy’s on May, 7th.
Jon Hannan, Council President, says
that he expects the levy to pass, citing the city’s need for a new station and
the relatively small amount of money the city is asking per resident, which Jon
states is approximately $2.00.
“I don’t have many concerns about [the project],” says Bridget Pavlick, Ward One of Streetsboro City Council. “Obviously money is always an issue, but I think that we’ve been doing this process for a while—over a year—and I think the folks in the fire department, they’re working on the project, and those in city council that have worked on it; I think we’re doing due diligence and I think we’re being very conscious and we’re optimistic about all those things.”