By Jason Arndt
Correspondent
Fire Commission members noted multiple improvements at the Union Grove/Yorkville Fire Station during a recent meeting held at the station and are in the preliminary stages of examining options to either expand the present facility or replace the station built in 1974.
The reorganization and cleanup of the station comes five months after the Commission and Fire Department expressed disagreement regarding the possibility of a new fire station.
“There was some minor remodeling done,” Fire Commission member and Village Trustee Michael Younglove reported Monday night at a village board meeting. “We were impressed by the work being done there.”
Members of the Fire Department have addressed previous concerns about storage and use of the former police department by adding insulation along with new lighting and flooring.
“They improved the part of the fire station that used to be the old police department, so that is now their inspection area,” Younglove said. “That is where they file all their reports.”
Outside consultant Municipality Finance Design Program has been brought in to assess the potential need for a new fire station within the next 5 to 10 years.
Fire officials told Commission members in August the station has become too small to house a growing membership.
“It is being done by them at no cost to the Commission and they are looking at some options and giving us some recommendations,”
Younglove said. “Right now we are not even at the stage of spending any money. We are just getting free advice at what some of our options could be.”
The Design company received input from fire department members and also gathered a list of eight to 10 potential sites for a new station within the community.
“We have identified several parcels of land in the community where we could see a fire station being built,” Younglove said.
“Their next project is to look at a number of potential sites for future building or expansion of the existing sights.”
Municipality Finance Design Program is a company that specializes in creative funding options including joint public and private facilities and were successful in constructing a facility in Greenfield.
The Greenfield project consists of a municipal portion and a healthcare clinic.
Younglove indicated one of the options is to have a joint community center and fire station, but noted the study is at the preliminary stages.
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