With those funds, the committee chose Vertex Co. of Weymouth as project manager and Context Architecture of Boston as architectural designer to develop a preliminary schematic layout of the building, fire station committee co-chair Bill Cantor said.  

The goal is to present an article that proposes funding to take the project further at this spring’s town meeting. “We don’t have a number yet,” he said.

The truck is an Enforcer Chassis Pumper Tanker Combo, and it cost more than $500,000 dollars.

It can hold up to  2,500 gallons of water and release more than 1,200 gallons per minute. It can also hold 20 gallons of foam.  

The department currently has 13 water apparatuses in its fleet, but they felt it was time to upgrade the fleet with a more modern and efficient one.

The first phase of the remodel will emphasize gender separation and firefighter health.

The remodel is "long overdue," Fire Chief Bob Sivak said. The building, constructed in the 1930, originally hosted City Hall as well as the fire and police departments. It became a dedicated fire station in 1981.

"When the new fire hall was built, it was provided with a dormitory environment for our firefighters at the time. But now, so much has changed," Sivak said. "We're a diverse fire department. We have both male and female firefighters. A dormitory type environment isn't necessarily the best."

Matthew J. Cage, 34, is charged with aggravated driving under the influence, according to a statement from Illinois State Police.  

Cage was driving a 2007 Chevrolet SUV about 3:10 a.m. on northbound I-57 when it rear-ended a Markham firetruck that was stopped on the left shoulder near Kedzie to assist with an earlier crash, state police said.  

The passenger in the SUV, 32-year-old Andrew Lee, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died just over an hour later, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood on the Far South Side.