Renovations at Port Huron’s north-end fire hall underway; new central station next
The sound of drilling into the terrazzo floor of the apparatus bay in Port Huron’s northernmost fire station on an afternoon earlier this month was almost too loud to talk over.
Since major renovations began in August, Fire Chief Corey Nicholson said, the noise has been the worst problem. The station is gutted, and next door — just feet from the building itself at 1914 Sanborn St. — firefighters are using a trailer as living quarters while construction lasts.
“This building never really was renovated at any point,” Nicholson said of Station 3, which was built in 1965. “Any improvements were made by the on-duty suppression staff over the years. That was really limited to turning that completely open dorm into a sort of pseudo-private setup with flowered curtain walls.”
The $1.5 million project was OK’d by City Council in June. The project is just one of several in the works for city fire facilities — months after concerns from some residents about Station 4 on the city’s south side elevated discussion about the city’s plans.
In September, City Council OK’d a construction services firm to solicit bids to build a new central fire station at an estimated cost of $10.87 million. Council also moved to borrow funds to cover the cost.
The city has planned to replace its current main station, 515 River St., for a couple of years, citing it as functionally obsolete and noting its sinking foundation at the side of the Black River.
Despite formally signing off on plans to move the central facility to White Park off 10th Street, City Manager James Freed said an earlier pledge to currently keep three stations open hasn’t changed — with no other major decisions currently waiting in the wings.
Previously, after commissioning studies of fire facilities and locations, officials had weighed moving to a two-station model.
“There’s no plans and no intentions to close Station 4. I can tell you that right now,” Freed said last week. Station 4 is located on 24th Street in South Park. “The current station is beyond repair, and the repair and maintenance would exceed the cost of a new bond payment on an annual basis. So, it makes financial sense to build a new station to get out of the nickel-and-diming of this archaic, old station, which is physically collapsing.”
What's going on at the north-end station?
Inside the trailer near Station 3, things didn’t look too different from the old living quarters of the old facility. A couple of armchairs were positioned in front of a large television and a kitchen stocked with necessities.
Thin cords also lined its walls where, Nicholson said, the “radio shop repositioned essential parts of the original alerting system,” so when “dispatch transmits an alarm for Station 3 or for all stations, the speakers kick on.”
“There’s speakers in every room,” the chief said. “These lights turn on.”
Residents on the north end won't experience longer response times during construction, he said.
Firefighter Neil R. Green sat at a desk in one bedroom of the trailer. He said doesn't take too long to get to their truck, though they haven't done it yet in cold weather.
“Of course, it’s different. The accommodations are nice compared to living in a station and all the dust. If you’ve been in (the) station, it’s completely gutted, so we couldn’t live in there,” he said. “Probably one of the things that’s a little different is having to leave the trailer to go to the fire engine because the fire engines stay parked in the station. So, when we get toned up for a call."
Elsewhere on site, the building’s flat roof is now being pitched and wooden areas of the exterior are being metal-wrapped to reduce maintenance. Interior walls are being shifted and the existing outer wall is being extended a few feet to cover an old patio within the existing footprint of the building in a broader effort to reconfigure living quarters and make the setup more efficient.
In addition to a shared dorm, there will be four individual rooms and two complete lockerroom instead of one shower, accommodating both men and women working in the department.
“But the big thing, too, when they come back from a fire, they’re not waiting in line to get contaminants and possible carcinogens off them,” Nicholson said. “... The industry standard is to shower immediately when you return to quarters. Now, we’re in a position to make that happen.”
And in what Nicholson called “just a lot of little things,” the northern station is going from boiler heat to gas-forced air and will receive all new windows.
Those improvements are expected to be completed sometime in December.
What will happen at White Park?
Just as Station 3 improvements wrap up this year, work for a new central station is set to begin.
Nicholson said two bid packages — one for the site preparation and another for the rest of the project — were set to go out to solicit contractors at the end of this month and in early November.
"And if we’re coming in under budget or at budget, we’re going to proceed with construction,” he said. Work prepping the ground at White Park for construction would begin in December “before the hard winter” with primary construction kicking off next year.
Construction plans overall call for an 18,915-square-foot fire station building facing 10th between White and Chestnut streets in Port Huron’s midtown neighborhood south of the Black River. The current central station is just north of the Black River.
It’ll have a public parking lot with an entrance off White and roughly 40 spots, as well as an emergency vehicle entrance off Chestnut and exit off 10th through a six-vehicle apparatus bay.
Inside, it’ll have eight combined locker and dorm rooms with four bathrooms for on-duty firefighters in addition to decontamination areas, equipment lockers, storage, a lobby, multiple offices and a large training room.
In September, Freed cited the classroom space as a “revenue-generating opportunity” to host continuing education for other fire departments in the region.
At the time, Lauren Lee, a project manager for Partners in Architecture, told council they’d tried to configure a layout that would “create that hierarchy of cleanliness” from apparatus bay to living quarters in a station that “is going to be there for the next 30, 50 years,” while Freed said the building overall would “be a community focal point” they hoped would “bring value to the neighborhood.”
The city was also set to issue up to $13.5 million in municipal security bonds to help cover the cost of the central station. Freed told council the issue would have a projected 3.5% interest rate that could be refinanced in 10 years, and that they planned to use “some cash on hand to keep borrowing costs down.”
Last week, the city manager reiterated the bond call was higher than the projected bid costs to accommodate any other capital needs for the city if they arise.
“You always authorize way over what you think you’ll need, and then we also factor in some refinancing in there, as well, of some existing debt,” he said in an interview. “So, we have no intention of spending that kind of money.”
The current central station was built in 1960, according to the city. Officials have not discussed what will happen with the property it occupies along the Black River once fire operations move to White Park.
The park, which is largely vacant, neighbors Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.
White Park is in a residential zone. Freed said the new station plans aren’t subject to site plan review through the city’s planning commission, though typically, in rezoning or site plan processes, immediate neighbors are sent a notice of a commission meeting to address those plans.
When asked about notice to the neighborhood, Freed said, “We did several public council meetings” where White Park and fire station plans were discussed at length.
Contact Jackie Smith at 810-989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Renovations at Port Huron’s north-end fire hall underway; new central station next
