Fire station gets go-ahead for $3.6 million
Board awards construction bid to Tallmadge company

By Diane Smith
Record-Courier staff writer

Plans for Kent's new fire station pushed forward Wednesday when the city's board of control accepted a bid for construction of the new station.

The board accepted a bid of $3.6 million from Carmen Construction Co. of Tallmadge, the low bidder for the multi-phased project.

"We've worked hard to get to this point," said Councilman Wayne Wilson, a member of the board. "I'm happy to see it going forward."

The city also took out two building permits for the demolition of houses next to the fire station. The houses are expected to be demolished next week, Safety Director William Lillich said.

Also on Wednesday, council approved the vacation of an alley between the fire station and the two houses.

Construction of the new living and working quarters is expected to begin in September. The building will be constructed where the two houses now stand. After that, the existing living quarters will be demolished and replaced with new apparatus bays. Only the existing service bays will remain once the project is done.

Fire Chief James Williams said the fire station will take a long time to complete. The total project will take about 640 days, or about 18 months to complete, he said. The working and living quarters will take about 300 days to finish.

Lillich said although the progress seems slow, it really isn't.

"There's an awesome amount of work to prepare for," he said.