GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay has been operating the past two months without its top fire station, highlighting the city’s desire to address aging facilities.
A plumbing issue at Green Bay Metro Fire Station 1 on Washington Street has moved firefighters to Station 2 and administrative staff broken up to temporary offices.
“It’s actually less than ideal, right?” said Green Bay Metro Fire Chief Matthew Knott. “But we’re working on some work with our insurance company to figure out what our next steps are and next solutions are.”
Knott doesn’t think his crews will ever be able to return to the 95-year-old building. He fears the 87-year-old Fire Station 3 on Shawano Avenue isn’t far behind.
Luckily, the city is already working with an architect on a new combined fire station on Broadway, across from the proposed Shipyard site, that would include about 200 housing units on top of it, with retail and community space also included. However, that’s still likely three years away from being ready, according to Knott.
“All the responses are still occurring as usual,” said Knott. “Our administrative staff is focused on what our needs are and still meeting the needs of our community.”
Figuring out what is needed in the new fire station has been part of a broader look at facilities in the city, including potential upgrades at City Hall and the nearby police department building.
The group charged with the effort, the Ad Hoc Facilities Committee, is currently focused on a potential addition to the police department, according to committee chair Brian Johnson.
“Previously we’ve looked at this and a recommendation that came forth was a $50 million facility, but the problem we had at the time was we didn’t have all the cooks in the kitchen, the people that needed to make it happen,” said Johnson, who is also the city council president. “We took a step back and said let’s get the right people in the room and take a look at all options.”
The next step is taking previous studies on space and flow needs and coming up with what an addition to the police department could look like. Similar work will also be done to potentially reformat City Hall, bringing the most in-demand services to the building’s lower levels.
“This is not currently in our five-year Capital Improvement Plan and it needs to be,” said Johnson. “The problem is nobody knows what kind of number to put in there.”
The hope is to get price tags for the work in the next few months.
Besides an addition to the existing police department, the design work will come with an alternate option of constructing a new building on the existing site of the police department.
Both options include the possibility of using the land where the nearby municipal court building currently sits. Those services would move to City Hall if needed.
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