Construction on $5.75Mfirehouse beginning soon
Township officials in bidding process to find contractor for project.
Construction on a new firehouse in Greene County’s Miami Twp. is expected to begin this summer.
The $5.75 million project is being funded through a 2.4-mill, 30-year bond issue that voters overwhelmingly passed in May 2017.
Township officials are now in the bidding process in search of a contractor for the job.
The new building will be constructed on about two acres at 1001 Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs. The landwas purchased by Miami Twp. Board of Trustees from Wright State University in 2017 for $350,000, according to Greene County property records.
Yellow Springs Home Inc. is under contract to buy the rest of the lots from WSU at the site for a purchase price of $270,000. Home inc. plans to build apartment units for senior citizens.
The design and plans for the new firehouse are done, and the county has issued a foundation permit for the project, according to Miami Twp. Fire Chief Colin Altman.
“We’re ready to grant contracts and start building this summer,” Altman said.
Altman said the newfirehouse will enable the department to better serve around the clock, seven days aweek, with the addition of sleeping rooms, training space and a kitchen.
“It will be an enhancement of what we have now and allow us to operate like a 21st century fire department,” he said.
Altman said the new building will be more than double the size of the current firehouse, Station 81 at 225 Corry Street, whichwas built in the 1950s and limits the
size of the trucks the department can park there.
The location for the new firehouse is strategic. Altman said a multi-year analysis on response times by the department showed that “theWright State lot gave us the best times to the majority of our population.”
Miami Twp. Fire and Rescuehasfifififififive full-timefifirefifififighters, nine part-time fifirefifighters and 22 volunteers, Altman said. They serve nearly 5,000 residents in the villages of Yellow Springs and Clifton and all the unincorporated areas of the township, according to the latest U.S. Census data.
From 2016 statistics, the department responded to a total of 1,189 emergency calls, including 882 EMS runs and 307 fifire calls. The department reports that same year they conducted 108 fifire safety inspections and completed 3,900 training hours.
The current fifirehouse is expected to be put up for sale after the department moves to the new facility, which is expected to be fifinished by summer 2019, offifficials said.