Fire Fighters Modernize Station Without Using Township Funds
During the last 2½ years, Washington Township in Allen County, Ind., has made $250,000 worth of improvements to township facilities. Most of these improvements were to the fire department and all of them were financed by donations or grant money. No township tax money was used.
How was this possible? Easy: In return for a really first-class station, the fire fighters were willing to provide most of the labor. Donations were obtained from many sources. Wholesale prices were demanded on everything else, which was paid for with federal money.
This allowed the township to use its money to buy an LTD wagon for the chief, a John Bean minipumper and a Pierce 1000 gpm pumper, and still reduce the tax rate from 24 to 13 cents per $100.
Equipment replaced
Initially, many of the mechanical systems which were 30 or more years old had to be replaced. The main water supply for the fire station was an 8-inch well, 190 feet deep. The well equipment had to be pulled and new equipment installed. In addition, the building was almost completely rewired by electricians in the fire department. The new system is capable of handling 600 amps. Two 6-inch PVC sewer lines were installed to replace one line and add a second.
A deteriorating overhang covering a good portion of the front of the building was replaced by a more eye-appealing portico. The exterior masonry was partially sand-blasted and the station was painted on the outside. New building signs were also added.
The heating system was modernized by installing a 1.25-million-Btu hot water boiler and a new oil storage tank. The system was divided into four thermostatically controlled zones valved so that sections can be shut down for repair without disrupting the entire heating system.
At the west end of the one-story fire station is a 42X44-foot auditorium that is used for town meetings as well as community gatherings. Interior walls were built around three sides of the auditorium to conceal heating pipes, and the floor tile was replaced with a sprayed-on finish that sealed the floor.
The walls were paneled with Asian nutmeg accented by floor to ceiling strips of short-nap carpeting. The same carpeting was used to cover doors to the kitchen and two rest rooms that were fitted out by plumbers in the fire department. A suspended ceiling was installed with acoustical tile in a 3-D effect, and the indirect lighting was wired in four zones.
The auditorium kitchen, built and maintained by the Ladies Auxiliary, has facilities for preparing 150 meals. There is storage space for 75 chairs, 10 tables and a blackboard.
In the center section of the station are a day room, chief s office, kitchen for fire fighters, radio room and boiler room. Built into the day room are movie and slide projectors and a screen. This room also has an 8-foot blackboard and filing cabinets, as well as two pool tables, a color TV and a tape deck stereo system. The walls are paneled in mahogany and the floor has short-shag carpeting. There is a suspended ceiling with indirect lighting. The chiefs office, adjacent to the day room, has the same decor.
Kitchen and radio room
The kitchen in this area is 12X25 feet and there is a 7-foot pass-through over one of the cabinets so that fire fighters can pick up their food in the first bay of the apparatus area.
The indirect lighting in the radio room has a blue filter to reduce glare and acoustics in the room were made as good as possible by soundproofing the walls and ceiling and carpeting the floor.
The apparatus area has all drivethrough bays and includes a tool room and a room for a breathing air compressor and cascade system. To conserve heat, a suspended ceiling was installed throughout the apparatus area. Other facilities include a 2-ton overhead hoist and a 4-inch overhead water pipe with five filling stations for apparatus tanks.
A 50X60-foot bay was built behind the second bay last year, and the wall separating the two bays was constructed so that the wall and its overhead door can be removed to make a single 50X120-foot bay. At present, the door can be closed so that heat can be reduced to a minimum in the new bay, which houses two lighting trucks, two grass fire trucks and the chiefs car.
