“The city of Dayton is actively engaged in evaluating potential sites in the northwest area of the city,” Hosford said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Dayton plans to spend about $11 million on a new joint police and fire station.
The money will come from the American Rescue Plan Act, which awarded Dayton about $138 million in federal COVID relief funds.
The city last fall was considering buying a vacant, former school building on Salem Avenue to turn into the new joint facility.
But the city withdrew its $2.8 million offer after officials said an inspection revealed the building would be expensive to renovate and retrofit.
The city last month issued a request for proposals seeking a firm to complete a comprehensive needs assessment of current police and fire facilities.
The city wants to hire a firm to identify and evaluate locations for a new facility that is large enough and that would optimize response times and efficiency, the request for proposal states.
The new facility is expected to be about 18,000 to 23,000 square feet.
Dayton said the goal is to relocate some police and fire services to better serve the northwest corridor, and the city wants to “right size” its operations and reduce future operating costs by creating a more efficient facility.
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein previously said that the city’s newest police and fire stations were built decades ago and the public safety facilities may not be in the best places because of changes in the geographic distribution of the city’s population.
Dayton police currently serve northwest Dayton from facilities on Salem Avenue and Washington Street, while the Dayton Fire Department has stations on North Main Street, Kings Highway and West Third Street.
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