She said efforts are underway to scale back the cost to within budget so construction on the nearly eight-acre site at 4504 W. Johnson Road can start in the spring.
The goal is to move in by December.
Kevin Jerndt, an assistant fire chief at the department, said the current station at 305 W. Johnson Road just outside the LaPorte city limits is cramped from being designed in the 1950s for trucks, ladders and other equipment not as large as modern firefighting vehicles and equipment.