The 1974-built Franklin Fire Station 21 is getting an extensive interior renovation. The biggest change for staff will be an upgrade from a communal bedroom to private bedrooms.
Leeann Doerflein | Daily Journal
An expansion and renovation years in the making is now underway at Franklin Fire Station 21.
The 1974-built fire station is getting an extensive interior renovation that will bring the station up to modern standards. The $2.4 million renovation is something that Franklin officials have been working toward for at least six years, and something that the fire department is eager to see completed, officials said.
The current station, located on Main Street near Morton Street, looks different inside than others. It currently has two bathrooms and one bedroom that all firefighters on a shift share, said Josh Snyder, Franklin’s fire chief. The city’s other two fire stations already have individual bedrooms for crew members, so this will bring all of the city’s stations up to a similar living standard.
With firefighters working 24-hour shifts, the station is a home away from home. After the renovation is complete, the station will include six individual bedrooms for firefighters and a bedroom for the battalion chief on duty. From the current two bathrooms, firefighters will see an upgrade to five, all of which will have showers, Snyder said.
The new bedrooms will be built as an addition to the fire station that will be constructed at the rear of the building. This will free up space to expand other parts of the station’s living quarters including the weight room, kitchen and living room, Snyder said.
Also part of the renovation will be replacing things like HVAC, wiring, paint, flooring and more. Just about everything in the interior will be new following the renovation, Snyder said.
All of this remodeling came with input from firefighters, he said.
“We try to get as much firefighter input at the point where we’re at,” Snyder said. “They gave us a lot of good ideas and we are implementing those.”
Envoy Construction Services began work on the renovation on Nov. 16. The project is being completed under a Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) process, which is typically a process where the builder arranges financing for the project and when it is complete it becomes the property of the city. In this case, the city has already secured funding and the project won’t need financing.
The funding includes $1.9 million from ARPA, with the balance coming from the city’s Cumulative Capital Development fund, or CCD, which can be used to fund things like building projects and purchasing vehicles.
The project has been a priority for the city since about 2015, Mayor Steve Barnett said. Getting money from the American Rescue Plan Act made it possible to complete it sooner than previously expected. Using ARPA funds is ideal to fund it because it will help improve health and safety for firefighters, Barnett has said previously.
There has been debate over the years whether the station should be expanded onsite or moved somewhere else. It was decided to keep the station where it currently sits and expand the footprint of the building because the station gets a lot of calls for service, Barnett said.
The project is expected to be completed in phases by the end of next June, per the timeline outlined in the BOT agreement that was approved by the city’s Board of Works and Public Safety in September.
During the renovation, Station 21 is closed. Firefighters are temporarily being housed at and working out of the city’s other two fire stations, Snyder said.
