New $330,000 training center set for Muncie Fire Department

MUNCIE, Ind. — The city's fire department will get a new training center as part of an effort to reopen the historic downtown fire station.

The Muncie Board of Works and Public Safety approved a bid from Attlin Construction, which submitted an offer of $394,848 to build the new training center on a lot near Fire Station No. 1 along Madison Street downtown.

While the historic station has been in use for offices and a training center, it hasn't fully functioned as a fire station in recent years because of structural problems.

EARLIER STORIES:

Fire station facade could cost $100,000

Hundreds of families visit with Santa at downtown fire station

In Wednesday's works board meeting, Muncie Fire Department Deputy Chief Bret Granger and architect Bruce Everetts said change orders, including some work the department will do on its own, will bring the $394,848 bid down to about $330,000.

After the meeting, Granger told The Star Press that the project, which could be completed by this fall, includes a 60-foot-by-100-foot steel building on a lot near the downtown fire station.

The new training center will have a 35-seat classroom as well as a house mock-up to train firefighters on interior house rescues, a controlled smoke room and the department's weight room.

Moving training operations out of the No. 1 fire station means that the city can work toward a longtime goal: structural improvements to allow fire trucks to operate out of the downtown fire station again.

"The goal is to open up No. 1 as a full-time fire station," Granger said.

The station had been shuttered under then-Mayor Sharon McShurley but was reopened for some uses by Mayor Dennis Tyler, a retired firefighter. 

The city in 2015 took bids for nearly $100,000 to make repairs to the facade of the station. 

The station is familiar to the public as the location where hundreds of children meet with Santa Claus at Christmas each year. 

The station, at Madison and Jackson streets, opened in 1905 and saw some renovation in 1976. 

Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.