The City Council recently approved spending $32,135 for and architectural and engineering analysis to decide how best to replace the roof, said Joel McAuliffe, communications director to Mayor Richard J. Kos.

The project had already gone out to bid and Russo Bar Associates, Inc., of Burlington, was selected as the contractor. The study will begin as soon as this week, Acting Fire Chief Dean Desmarais said.

The building, technically known as Fire Station No. 3, was built in the late 1800s. It is structurally sound but does need some improvements, Desmarais said.

"Strategically it is in a prime location for our department and with the expected evolution of downtown...it is even more important," he said.

There is a proposal to convert the empty Lyman Mills building downtown into about 80 market-rate apartments. The city is also making some infrastructure improvements that could restart a project to convert the Cabotville Mills into loft housing.

The fire station is currently manned by three to four people and one piece of fire equipment, Desmarais said.

In 2006, The Fire Station Study Committee, after hiring the Chicopee-based Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc. to look at station options, recommended a three-station concept.

That meant keeping the station in North Amherst, either renovating or demolishing and rebuilding the central station downtown and building a substation in South Amherst.

The plan moving forward would look at two stations – keeping the north station and building a new station somewhere in South Amherst.

The current central station was built in 1929 and fire trucks have just inches to spare when parking.

But while officials agree a new station is needed, so is a new home for the public works department.

A report on the condition of town owned buildings issued in July reported that both structures were at "near end of life."  

"One of the problems we have space wise is that we don't have space to put an ambulance on the east side of the city," said South Bend Fire Chief Steve Cox.

Officials say building a new fire station a few blocks away would solve that problem and cut response times for ambulances in half in some areas.

There's just one problem with the possible new location they're looking at: it's a park.

"A number of members have expressed concern over the loss of green space, the nearness of the fire station to the zoo and the swimming pool," said Bill Dunn, with the River Park Neighborhood Association.

"I was concerned about the noise," said Sharon Jojo, who has lived in the neighborhood for years. "I like to go to the park and listen to the music, a lot of the concerts out there. I want to hear the music, I don't want to hear sirens."

South Bend Fire Department officials say a new station would not impact the playground, the poor or even some of the trees in the area.