The work, an expense of about $375,000, was paid for entirely by special purpose local option sales tax funds, and mostly was conducted in-house by city employees. City Building Safety and Planning Director Ron Alexander said doing the renovations in-house contributed to a substantial savings for Garden City.

The station's new design provides an office for the assistant chief and for additional storage upstairs, the chief said. The back of the station, meanwhile, has space for the three firefighters on shift at a given time to relax, cook, sleep, shower and wash their towels and gear, Medeiros said.

The proposed renovation is a scaled-down version of what began in 2007 as a proposal to totally replace Station 3 at the former Pease Air Force Base. That plan could have cost as much as $3 million.