North Ridgeville's City Council's Safety Committee voted Wednesday to recommend a Columbus architectural firm to design and oversee construction of the city’s $8.1 million central fire station.
City Council may vote next week to employ Mull & Weithman Architects Inc. to design a state-of-the-art 22,594-square-foot facility that will include four vehicle bays, specialized rooms for decontamination and sterilizing of used firefighting equipment and life-saving apparatus as well as modern dormitory-style rooms on a second floor for on-duty firefighters.
Legislation authorizing a nearly $800,000 contract with the architects is before Council.
Bradley J. Mull and Joe Weithman, co-owners of the architectural firm, made a presentation to the three-person committee as well as other officials, including Fire Chief John Reese and Safety-Service Director Jeffry Armbruster.
With a number of major completed and pending fire station projects, most in central Ohio, the 18-year-old firm has completed an assessment of needs for the city’s existing two fire stations as well as a potential third satellite station that could be built in the future.
"Design is all about response time," Weithman told the committee. "That is a key in design."
Plans for the new station, which will replace the aging, cramped main station built in the 1950s on Avon Belden Road, call for it to be constructed south of Center Ridge Road and accessed by a planned extension of Jaycox Road running from Center Ridge to the site of the city’s new middle school next to the high school off Bainbridge Road.
Reese has long said the station’s proposed location would lead to quicker response times in the eastern part of the city.
Talks are underway with a local family to purchase two to three acres of land for the new station.
The architects presented photos and artist renderings to show specific features of the new station including treatment rooms for people transported from fire scenes. Those rooms are now planned for an area off the main entrance as is a training room that could be opened to community use.
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