Joey Oliver
mlive.com
(TNS)

BAY CITY, MI – Bay City commissioners are set to vote this month on an agreement with a southeast Michigan company to determine the scope of work required for the city’s currently defunct Fire Station 5.

An item on the agenda for the Monday, July 7, Bay City Commissioners meeting calls for the commission to decide whether to approve a $43,060 professional services agreement with Redstone Architects, Inc. of Bingham Farms, Michigan.

The agreement calls on the company to determine the scope of work needed on Fire Station 5, make recommendations and develop plans for the work, and provide estimated costs as needed within 120 days.

Commissioners on March 3 passed a resolution to obtain bids for the possible repair of Fire Station 5, located at 1209 E. Smith St.

In April, a request for proposals was issued to determine the scope of work needed.

Four proposals were received by the end of May, including offers from Redstone Architects, Inc., WTA Architects in Saginaw, Veridus Advisors in Byron Center and Hobbs + Black in Lansing.

Interviews with the firms were conducted on June 9 and June 13. The firms were evaluated on their grasps of project requirements, key personnel and roles, pertinent experience and compensation, according to city officials.

Redstone Architects Inc. scored the highest and has been recommended for the project by city staff.

Fire Station 5, built in 1965, closed on July 15, 2024, leaving the city with two fire stations on the east side of the river and one on the West Side.

The closure was due, in part, to the poor conditions the building is in, officials said previously. The closure was also influenced by financial considerations.

Officials previously said it’d cost more than $386,000 in renovation and repairs to reopen Fire Station 5 in Bay City’s Banks District, and the price of adding personnel to staff the station would cost the city more than twice that number.

Bay City Department of Public Safety Director Caleb Rowell previously told city commissioners it would cost the city a projected $386,318 for high- and medium-priority repairs on Fire Station 5, and adding the personnel to reopen the fire station would cost the city approximately $1.6 million the first year. That cost would increase to about $2 million by year three.

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Jon Moss
syracuse.com
(TNS)

Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse city leaders celebrated the reopening Wednesday of a fire station that’s been closed for 27 years.

Fire Station 12 at 400 W. Genesee St. is home again to an engine company for the first time since 1998. It had closed during a reorganization of the fire department after opening in the 1920s.

The department was able to reopen the station on the edge of downtown thanks to a roughly $7.6 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It competed nationally for the money.

The grant is helping the department expand its capacity in two other ways.

A firefighter was added to Rescue Company at Fire Station 6 at 601 S. West St. That person will drive an additional fire truck, Rescue 2, to calls.

Four firefighters now staff a new unit, Ladder 1, at Fire Station 1 at 900 S. State St.

Fire Chief Michael Monds said at a news conference that the changes will help the department manage a growing number of emergency calls.

“You know that sometimes we struggle to keep up with this call volume‚” he said. “But this redeployment plan helps us ensure that we’re prepared for the complexity and density of today’s emergencies.”

Monds said the department is shifting around some existing personnel and adding three new firefighters. That brings the department up to 75 people on duty for each shift.

Monds broadcasted the staffing changes on the radio at the beginning of the day.

“Rescue Co. 2, Engine Co. 12 and Ladder 1 are on the air at 8:01 a.m.,” a dispatcher replied.

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The new engine and ladder have already fielded their first call.

They were sent at 9:05 a.m. to 516 E. Willow St. for a fire alarm, according to dispatches from the Onondaga County 911 Center. They were cleared from the scene about 10 minutes later.

Mayor Ben Walsh said he was excited about the station reopening and the booming local economy that helped to fuel it. A record level of construction activity was permitted by last year.

Walsh said he doesn’t think the federal grant for the fire department is in danger. President Donald Trump has imposed a series of unprecedented funding freezes across the federal government, some of which judges have ruled unlawful.

“Obviously, the uncertainty in the overall budget is very concerning to the city as a whole,” he said. “I’ve been given no indications that funding specifically through the SAFER grant for the fire department is at risk.”

Staff writer Jon Moss covers breaking news, crime and public safety. He can be reached at jmoss@syracuse.com or @mossjon7.

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