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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The Branson Fire Department has received a donation from the Dr. Joy Watson and Lazarus Foundation for $1,000 to purchase new Swift Water Rescue Suits.

These suits are used to keep fire rescue personnel dry and provide protection from storm water runoff, especially during flood related emergencies.

Last year, Dr. Watson's financial support allowed Branson Fire to purchase a SKEDCO Rescue Tripod.

As federal investigators continue their probe of the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department's losses of up to $5 million, financial statements show a $1.4 million spending spree on new equipment from 2012-14 that a top fire official says may not have all gone for purchases.

The department's 2014 financial statement indicates it spent $614,000 on new equipment and apparatus that year. But department Vice Chairman Edward Scott recalled that the biggest purchase in 2014 was a $175,000 ambulance.

In 2013, the department spent $273,000 on equipment. Scott said he believed it bought a new Chevrolet Suburban for the chief, at a cost of about $50,000.

He said records of the purchases were in the hands of state and federal investigators, so details were not available.

"It appears we might not have accurate figures there," Scott said. "That's one of the things being looked at in the investigation."

As the fire department probe proceeds, increasing attention has focused on fire services in Carmel, Putnam County's largest town, with 34,000 residents. The municipality has four volunteer fire departments in four taxing districts that provide fire service over 40 square miles. The other departments are Carmel, Mahopac Falls and Croton Falls. Carmel taxpayers will pay $3.5 million to the volunteer companies in 2016.

Revelations about Mahopac fire finances come as federal investigators pore over financial records of the MVFD and the Patterson Fire Department to determine who was responsible for what town officials have said are financial irregularities that have led to millions of dollars in losses.

The investigation of the MVPD began in September, three months after the department submitted its 2014 annual financial statement to the Carmel Town Board.

Since then, the department’s treasurer, Michael Klein, has resigned. Klein’s business, Buckshollow Emergency Equipment Corp., also sold gear to the department for several years. But the department has declined to release invoices from Buckshollow, saying they were turned over to state and federal investigators.

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Farmersville police said there were no mechanical issues that attributed to the crash of a fire truck into a Dairy Queen last week, reports nbcdfw.com.

Two people were injured Feb. 20 when Greenville Fire-Rescue Unit 4 slammed into the restaurant in the 200 block of Highway 380 East in Farmersville.

The truck had just been serviced by Siddons-Martin Emergency Group in Denton, and the company was returning the vehicle to the fire station when the crash occurred. The truck was not being driven by a firefighter at the time of the crash.

Representatives from the City of Greenville, Dairy Queen and Siddons-Martin met and evaluated the mechanical operation of the fire engine and found no mechanical issues that could have attributed to the accident.

For more information, view www.nbcdfw.com