Admire continues to buzz with the near completion of the fire station and the addition of a new water tower.
Admire Fire Chief and Mayor Richard Gould stood in the new fire station Tuesday morning and talked about the features.
Gould said he had been thinking about a new fire building in Admire for about 12 years. He finally saw his dream become a reality.
“We’re pretty excited,” he said. “Finally seeing it is awesome.”
The station is 6,000 square feet, enough space for three large bays, a meeting area, restrooms and a kitchen area. Gould said the fire station has been housing equipment for about a month now and the back part is still under construction. The walls, ceiling and floors are constructed and a drop ceiling is being installed in the meeting room area with a design Gould came up with. Gould said he drilled holes in the ceiling beams and strung wire to hang the ceiling tiles. The result is a clean-looking ceiling instead of a large open space and exposed ductwork, Gould said as he pointed to the ceiling wires that were hanging from the unfinished ceiling.
The rest rooms inside the building will have a shower and the entire building is handicapped accessible. Hanging decking was installed below the ceiling to add 600 feet of storage space to the building, Gould said. Fans were installed in the ceiling in the bay area to circulate the air. There also will be a washer and dryer, a space where firefighters can work on equipment and lockers. The meeting room will have whiteboards, a Power Point projector and space for classes such as CPR.
Gould said that the building will be available to rent for community functions.
“We don’t really have a community place in town,” he said. “We’re really hoping that this will catch on with people.”
The building was built with the future in mind, Gould said.
“We made it this big because you never know what the future (holds),” he said. “You could build dorms (inside) if you wanted. This could very easily be a county station.”
The station also is equipped with a back-up generator. In an emergency, the station can be used to house people, Gould added. The project also is tax-dollar friendly.
“The citizens are getting their bang for their buck out of this,” he said. “We haven’t raised any taxes for it.”
Gould said a lot of thought went into the building.
“We didn’t just think of ourselves in this thing,” he said. “We thought of how we could fit the community into this.”
The new water tower is well on its way to completion as well. The tower is 120 feet high and will hold 55,000 gallons of water when completed, improving the town’s water system. The city bought the tower used. It used to stand on the former Menninger campus in Topeka.
“That’s the ultimate recycling project,” Gould said as he gazed up at the water tower, which sits next to the fire station. “Instead of junking it, we’re going to re-use it. It’s a pretty cool project.”
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