The plans to relocate Fire Station 3 began seven years ago. Fire Chief Mike Carlsten says the old fire station on 35th Street and Harrison was designed in the 1950s.
"It's located in the Duck Creek floodplain, so during flood times, we lose access routes," he said. "It's located on a one-way that, when the building was built, used to be a two-way, so if our firefighters are going north, they have to challenge one-way traffic for a couple blocks and that's not a good situation for anyone."
"As the city continues to grow farther north, then we're moving our resources to move with our population of our city."
The new station on 42nd Street and Brady was also designed to keep diesel exhaust from idling trucks away from the firefighters' living area. And the 18,000 square foot facility has a meeting room that could be used as a home base for city officials and police in an emergency.
Carlsten says one of the brass poles from the old Fire Station 3 will be on display at the new one.
He says the new station will be operational later this month.
