VIDEO: The city of Battle Creek has reversed course and will keep a fire station near the Post Addition Neighborhood. When the city unveiled its plan for new and renovated fire stations last year, there was no plan to replace the 123-year-old station across the street from the Post factory.
The original plan was to combine Station 1 and Station 3โs service areas with firefighters operating out of a renovated Station 1. After more community discussion, a new plan was brought forward Tuesday night to build a new Station 3 on the edge of the Post Addition. In order to facilitate a new fire station, changes had to be made for renovations slated at other facilities. Technical Services Battalion Chief Cody Titus said this plan will ultimately be better for the future of the Battle Creek Fire Department.
โIt actually turned out to be of better interest to us to move forward with a new build at Station No. 3 with a reduced build at Station No. 2.ย So splitting that staffing and that manpower over the future to kind of corner this major part of the city and then utilize Station No. 1 as storage.ย We donโt have a good avenue for storage right now. So we can use Station No. 1 for storage, still as admin with a very minor tweak to it then allocate that fundage to Station 3,โ said Cody Titus, technical services battalion chief with the Battle Creek Fire Department.
The project as presented Tuesday night is still $8 million over the budgeted $25 million. Commissioners will have to decide at the Aug. 5 meeting whether they want to bond the higher amount or go with what planners are calling the โvalue plan,โ where even more cuts are made to the renovations of the existing facilities.
