Dayton commissioners recently authorized spending $1.07 million on two top-mount pumper fire trucks, which will replace engines built in 1993 and 1994.

The engines are 1,500-gallon-per-minute class A pumps. Their tanks can hold about 750 gallons of water.

The purchase will help rotate some of the oldest fire-suppression vehicles out of the system, Payne said.

"We'll get 15 good years out of them," Payne said. "And with the newer engines, we'll have lower maintenance costs."

The fire department has eight front-line fire engines, which are used everyday, except when they require maintenance.

When those trucks are in the shop, the department has four reserve engines, which were built in 1983 but were retrofitted between 1989 to 1994, Payne said.

When the department takes ownership of the new vehicles, the engines they replace will be scrapped because of their age, Payne said.

The front-line fleet includes two engines purchased in 2013, two purchased in 2010 and two purchased in 2002.

The fire department is expected to receive the new engines in about nine months. But it expects to receive its new emergency medic unit a couple months sooner than that.

The new, $248,750 vehicle replaces a unit purchased in 1997. That vehicle will be taken out of operation. The city's seven front-line medic units make thousands of runs every year, officials said.

The average age of the units is 8.4 years old.

"We are super excited about (the new station)," said Ada Fire Department Deputy Chief Joe Allen. "We've been in that other station for about 108 years now, and we got our money out of it, but it's time to move to a new station."

Allen said one of the most important features of the new station is that it is designed to centralize the department's command structure.

"We've got all the officers right here, and it's going to be a lot easier to communicate," he said. "That's one of the things we've improved a lot is our communication across the department."

Allen cited improved training facilities and a better classroom as benefits that affect the entire department's operations.

"The new engine bays have an exhaust system that will keep diesel smoke out, so during the wintertime, we can check the trucks," he said. "In the past, if it's been below freezing we haven't been able to pull the trucks out and put them into pump (mode) because we've been afraid of having the pumps freeze up. Now we don't have to worry about it."

Allen also said the station's location will make coming and going to answer calls a lot safer and easier.

"Our line of sight pulling out of the station is a big improvement," he said, adding that reduced cross-traffic on 14th Street will make it easier for the trucks to get out.

"There is so much improvement," Allen said. "The big trucks, like Ladder 9 and Engine 10, they're going to be able to drive through the bay, so they'll pull around on 15th Street and come in that way. Only the smaller trucks are going to have to back into the bays now."