Commissioner hopeful new fire stations will soon be operational

WARREN — In the last few months, the Warren Fire Department has held ceremonies for two new fire stations.

The department held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Fire Station No. 5 — located on Schoenherr Road — in late July. A ceremony for the new Fire Station No. 1, on Van Dyke Avenue south of Center Line, was held at the end of September.

Both stations are significantly larger than the old ones, coming in at around 13,000-square feet. They have individual sleeping quarters, a living space separate from where firefighters will decontaminate after a fire, and other state-of-the-art technology.

However, the department hasn’t officially moved into either station yet.

Warren Fire Commissioner Skip McAdams said Fire Station No. 1 is at about 97% completion, while Fire Station No. 5 is at 99%.

“They told me that the easy part is constructing the station, and the hard part is the last 2%, which is all the little things,” he said.

While some of the holdup comes from waiting for things like furniture to be delivered and systems to be installed and turned online, a big part of it is tied to the recent delay in the approval of the state budget.

“They wouldn’t schedule our boiler inspection until the budget was signed. We don’t know where we’re at in the queue, because obviously we’re not the only project with the state,” McAdams said. “This fight has been going on for months, and the state stopped scheduling boiler inspections even before the budget ended.”

The Michigan House of Representatives and Senate had until Oct. 1 to approve a balanced, bipartisan budget. They failed to do it, resulting in the state government shutting down in addition to the federal government shutdown. On Oct. 1, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a budget extension allowing the state to continue operating until a budget was reached.

Whitmer signed the budget on Oct. 7.

Both fire stations will have a traffic signal outside that they can control when there’s an emergency. McAdams said the light had been installed early by the state outside of Station No. 1, but the county has been late in the permitting process.

“The state installed the traffic signal early; the county is late. You would think it would be the other way around, but we finally got through all of the permitting processes with the county,” he said.

At Station No. 1, the lights are attached to wires running above the street. At Station No. 5, they will be attached to a mast, which McAdams said has been ordered but will take several more weeks to be delivered.

At a recent meeting, McAdams said he pushed for a more concrete date that the stations will be open and operational.

“I wish I had solid answers for you. I’m watching people working here, and it’s this close. I can anticipate it, but I don’t have a date yet,” he said. “We had a meeting yesterday, and I pressed for it, like give me something tangible. As soon as they know, I will know. But I’m hopeful. I remain hopeful.”