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Beloit Township approves fire station plan

BELOIT TOWNSHIP — After more than a decade of discussion, the Beloit Town Board on Monday night approved a construction bid for a new fire station.

Board members voted 3-2 to award a $2.265 million contract to Larson & Larson Builders of Loves Park, Ill. A second contract worth $344,418 for site work was awarded to Bjoin Limestone, Janesville.

Angus Young Architects of Janesville did design work for the new plan at a cost of $168,000.

Voting in favor of the new station were board Chairman Greg Groves, Dick LaMonte and Shannon Ladwig. Voting against were David Townsend and Phil Taber.

"The bids were super-competitive," said Groves. "They were approximately a quarter-million under our estimates."

In February 2008, the board rejected a design proposal from Angus Young for a new $3.4 million fire department and $1.4 million town hall. The two projects would have increased the town's tax levy by 22.5 percent, Administrator Bob Museus said at the time.

Groves thinks the time is right for a new station. Bonds, which are used to help finance municipal projects such as this one, are currently inexpensive to obtain.

The existing fire station is a collection of major and minor maintenance problems, Groves said. The roof leaks, and repeated attempts have been made to repair it. The building also is more than 50 years old and is undersized.

"I've gotten a lot of calls from people who said 'I don't want a new fire station,'" Groves said. "And I tell them to go down there and take a tour and then call me back and tell me what they think. I've never gotten any calls back."

The Town of Beloit Fire Department serves an area bordered by Bayliss Avenue to the south, Airport Road to the north, Prairie Avenue to the west and Johnson Road to the west.

"It used to be 36 square miles, but some of that is in the city of Beloit now," Groves said. "We serve some of the town of Rock, too, and we used to serve the town of Newark."

The new station will have seven bays, storage space, sleeping quarters and some office space. It will be built behind existing station No. 1 at 2445 Afton Road.

Gazette reporter Ann Marie Ames contributed to this story