By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Decatur’s fire station has been situated on Seventh St., between Jefferson and Adams streets, for some 92 years.
It’s served its community quite well and with distinction over all those years. But it seems the time is approaching when it will be saying goodbye to all it has served.
Decatur’s board of works and safety, at its Tuesday meeting, approved a request by Fire Chief Jeff Sheets for a feasibility study to find a place for a new, more modern station.
Sheets said the feasibility study is needed “to see in the future what can be done.”
“We are simply out of room. We’ve tried to keep it up the best we can, but…”
A new station is hardly just around the proverbial corner, but the process needs to be started, Sheets told the board.
The newer, larger fire trucks are stuffed into the building and the living quarters are cramped. In early 2022, the board of works approved an expenditure of $15,497 to upgrade the heating system in the residential area, which had had uneven heating for something like 10 years.
Building on is no longer possible. The station was constructed in 1932, a second phase was built on in the 1960s, and a third phase was added in the 1980s, Sheet explained.
A railroad track and power lines have the station landlocked, it was noted.
Sheets has a feasibility study lined up for $26,500 and has enough funds in his budget to cover it.
Mayor Dan Rickord said officials visited three other cities which are building a new station or are planning to do so, and each began with a feasibility study.
The board gave its approval.