OH Chief: New Fire Station 'Going to Be Here 70 Years'

DOVER—The city's second fire station, at the east end of Dublin Drive, is almost finished.

Fire Chief Russell Volkert gave a tour of the building Monday evening to members of City Council and the administration.

He said the station was built with an eye toward minimizing operating costs through such features as extensive insulation, radiant floor heating and heat pumps.

"This building is going to be here 70 years," Volkert said. The cost of a building's construction is estimated to constitute 25 percent of its lifetime cost, and operations, 75 percent.

The fire chief pointed out several aspects of the project:

• There is an office with its own entry which can be used by police.
• A tornado shelter is beside the bays for the pumper truck and ambulance.
• The one-acre lot has enough room for another truck bay to be added to the building.
• Ventilation is designed to keep diesel exhaust away from offices and living quarters. Air filters for particulates are installed in the bays.
• One office has two desks to accommodate a fire department shift supervisor and a police officer.

Care was taken to keep potential cancer-causing agents away from firefighters, Volkert said. Turnout gear, which can be coated with carcinogens dispersed at fires, has a storage space separate from occupied areas. Hard surfaces throughout the building are intended to be easy to clean and unlikely to provide breeding grounds for pathogens brought back to the station by paramedics who have handled sick patients.

Local contractors and local employees did most of the work on the project. Volkert said the only out-of-towner was a subcontractor from Holmes County -- local enough for him -- that installed the sprinklers.

Volkert declined to estimate an occupancy date for the structure that can house up to nine firefighters, but will start with four. A pumper truck and an ambulance will be assigned to the station along with equipment for extricating people from crashed vehicles.

A public open house is expected to be scheduled after the fire department moves in. Exterior paving remains to be done.

City Auditor Nicole Stoldt said putting the station at the north end of the city was good for serving different parts of the city. The downtown fire station will remain in use.

Stoldt noted the project was funded without debt. The city started reserving funds for the improvement six or seven years ago. Dover Township contributed money toward the construction cost as part of its contract for having the city provide fire and rescue services.

Change orders increased the project cost by about 3.5 percent over the initial $1.6 million bid total, according to Volkert and Stoldt.

Interior and exterior color schemes follow the crimson-and-gray of Dover High School. Historical touches decorate the front of the building.

"You sure did a hell of a nice job," Councilman John Correll told Volkert.

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