A Greene County department will build a new $5.75M firehouse, and the site was carefully picked

Township officials are now in the bidding process in search of a contractor for the job.

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The new building will be constructed on about two acres at 1001 Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs. The land was purchased by Miami Twp. Board of Trustees from Wright State University in 2017 for $350,000, according to Greene County property records.

Yellow Springs Home Inc. is under contract to buy the rest of the lots from WSU at the site for a purchase price of $270,000. Home inc. plans to build apartment units for senior citizens.

The design and plans for the new firehouse are done, and the county has issued a foundation permit for the project, according to Miami Twp. Fire Chief Colin Altman.

“We’re ready to grant contracts and start building this summer,” Altman said.

Altman said the new firehouse will enable the department to better serve around the clock, seven days a week, with the addition of sleeping rooms, training space and a kitchen.

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“It will be an enhancement of what we have now and allow us to operate like a 21st century fire department,” he said.

Altman said the new building will be more than double the size of the current firehouse, Station 81 at 225 Corry Street, which was built in the 1950s and limits the size of the trucks the department can park there.

The location for the new firehouse is strategic. Altman said a multi-year analysis on response times by the department showed that “the Wright State lot gave us the best times to the majority of our population.”

Miami Twp. Fire and Rescue has five full-time firefighters, nine part-time firefighters and 22 volunteers, Altman said. They serve nearly 5,000 residents in the villages of Yellow Springs and Clifton and all the unincorporated areas of the township, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

From 2016 statistics, the department responded to a total of 1,189 emergency calls, including 882 EMS runs and 307 fire calls. The department reports that same year they conducted 108 fire safety inspections and completed 3,900 training hours.

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The current firehouse is expected to be put up for sale after the department moves to the new facility, which is expected to be finished by summer 2019, officials said.