Talk of upgrading the 11,000-square-foot station, located on Dodd Road south of Minnesota 62, goes back to 2015, when the city first hired an architect to study the building’s deficiencies.
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Concept plans, ranging from simple upgrades to a total teardown, either didn’t meet firefighters’ needs or were too expensive, said Liz Petschel, a council member since 2011. When Dave Dreelan was promoted to fire chief in mid-2017, he recruited a new design firm — CNH Architects — that worked with a committee and city staff to come up the current plan, which calls for 15,180 square feet of additional space.