The $12 million North Shore Fire and health headquarters will open in Glendale this spring

This spring, the North Shore Health Department and North Shore Fire and Rescue will combine offices at a new location in Glendale and embark on a new era of partnership.

Construction on a fire station at 5901 N. Milwaukee River Parkway in Glendale is underway to house a new station, Fire Station 82, as well as administrative offices, a fleet maintenance facility and North Shore Health Department Offices, Assistant Chief of NSFR Daniel Tyk said. The station, which is being built on the same site as the old station razed last year, will likely be open and operational by early May.

The health department is currently located in both Brown Deer at 4800 W. Green Brook Drive and Shorewood at 2010 E. Shorewood Blvd.

Construction on the building started in early 2023

Construction on Station 82 began in February 2023 after the project was approved at the end of 2022 by the North Shore Fire Department Board of Directors.

In total, the reconstruction project will cost around $12 million, shared between the two departments' funds on hand and borrowing, according to NSFR's 2024 budget. Remaining expenses in 2024 for Station 82 are expected to reach $3.25 million.

The fire department will foot most of the bill ― around $11 million ― while the health department's share is around $1 million.

As part of the agreement, NSHD Health Officer Becky Rowland said the department will pay a small “mortgage” to the fire department. After 20 years, the health department will own the space, providing relief from current rent costs.

The shared space will enable access, partnership between departments

Reconstructing the old station firehouse, which was built in 1963 and had failing infrastructure, has been part of the department’s long-range financial plan and is based on a 2016 evaluation of the facility by engineering and architecture consultants, Tyk said.

The new offices will bring all NSFR administrators under the same roof, since previously, they'd been split between three stations, Tyk said.

For the health department, the offices will offer more space and a more central location. Rowland said the current two NSHD spaces are too small and located at the far ends of the department’s jurisdiction.

“We cannot wait to be centrally located and all under one roof and look forward to new efficiencies and opportunities to build deeper relationships that will enhance the work,” she said.

The shared location with NSFR will create an environment conducive to increased partnership and enhanced interdepartmental efficiencies, Rowland said.

“We serve the same seven communities, report to the same managers, administrators and elected officials, and both entities are motivated by the health and safety of our constituents,” Rowland said. “We have lots of ideas on how we can dovetail our work more conscientiously when we are under the same roof.”

"Admin will now be around 25 feet away from each other," Tyk said.

The new fire station was designed by Kueny Architects of Pleasant Prairie. It is being built by Scherrer Construction of Burlington.

A shared case manager will help manage the rising call volume

One initiative NSFR and NSHD are already collaborating on is hiring a case worker who will be able to help address the rising service call volume.

The job will be posted in the coming weeks, Tyk said. Though the position will be under the health department, the role will include fielding and responding to some NSFR calls.

For over a year, NSFR has been working to expanding its staffing and resources, as the number of calls for help increases and the number of responders stagnates.

The department pitched an initial request to hire six more personnel for an additional ambulance to the North Shore municipalities that oversee the department. The municipalities rejected the request, saying the accompanying 3.5% budget increase wasn't feasible, according to municipal meeting minutes.

Instead they approved a modified request, raising the budget by 2.75% to hire a case manager that would help respond to non-life-threatening emergencies, a type of call fire departments across the country have seen rise substantially over the past decade, Tyk said.

“It has been quite the labor of love and we have been putting this into motion for over a year,” Rowland said.

Because NSHD covers seven north shore municipalities, finalizing and executing the move required collaboration and coordination between multiple different governing bodies, Rowland said. NSHD funding had to be adjusted and approved by all seven boards of trustees and common councils: Glendale, Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, River Hills, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: North Shore's Fire Station 82 is on track to open in May in Glendale