When firefighter Ian Ballard reported for this 7 a.m. shift on July 1, he did so in the new Chelsea Area Fire Authority Fire Station 2 in Lima Township.
The early part of his shift was spent moving in, unpacking and cleaning up the second CAFA fire station on Jackson Road across from CrossFit. The new station will typically be manned by one of the three fire lieutenants, he said, but Ballard was filling in for a coworker who was off yesterday.
Fire Chief Jim Payeur said, “We took an old vacant building and recycled it at a fraction of the cost of a new building.”
Total figures will be available later this month for the regular CAFA Board meeting, but Payeur said the building’s owner, Bob Van Schoick put a “tremendous amount of money into the building.”
Payeur said among the upgrades the owner did to the building were exterior renovations, the roof and an addition, overhead doors, concrete work, exterior doors and windows and upgrades to the heating system.
The project started in January 2014 and CAFA planned to occupy the building sooner, but there were construction delays, Payeur said.
In addition, there’s a possibility that additional emergency personnel might occupy an office in the structure. He said both the Michigan State Police and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office have expressed “a strong interest.”
The second station has two bays for fire apparatus and Engine 6-2 and Engine 6-3 as well as brush truck 6-2 will be kept at the new station. This way, there will be both firefighting and emergency response vehicles available when needed, which are outfitted with the jaws of life for crashes, water for fires and basic life support equipment for medical calls.
The second station is about the same size as the main station in downtown Chelsea. There’s a training room and office, which is wired for projectors, an area for computers and dispatch equipment, a kitchen, dining room, sleeping quarters with two beds, a washer-drawer and a bathroom with a shower.
The high efficiency LED lights are on a motion sensor and there is an exhaust system in the bays when the fire apparatus is started up.
“Ian’s done a lot of work out here,” Payeur said of the interior work.
The new station eliminates the need to pay the Dexter Area Fire Department (DAFD) about $5,000 a month to cover the six eastern most sections of Lima Township.
Plus, CAFA and DAFD have entered into an agreement to deploy manpower and apparatus from the closest fire stations to emergency situations. The new policy between the neighboring fire departments was expected to go into effect on July 1 to coincide with the opening of a second CAFA fire station.
CAFA is planning an open house for the new station, perhaps as soon as August, Payeur said.
