WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — Orange barrels and plastic barriers west of the West Lafayette Police Department hint that the public safety center will soon begin to rise from the ground there.
The facility eventually will use the existing police station on Navajo Drive as part of the combined police department and fire department headquarters, as well as a new Fire Station 2.
The new fire station will replace the antiquated Fire Station 2 at the southeast corner of Salisbury Street and Navajo Drive, West Lafayette Fire Chief Jeff Need said.
The new public safety center combines offices for the police department and the fire department and includes a fire station and fire training facilities, Need said.
“It will look like a brand new building,” West Lafayette Police Chief Adam Ferguson said, “but a lot of the bones of our existing structure will still be part of the new building.”
“This project is really borne out of the need for improved fire service out of Fire Station 2, as well as a more modern space for the fire administration,” Ferguson said.
Currently, the fire department’s administration is housed at a nearly 100-year old building at North Street and Northwestern Avenue. It once housed the West Lafayette City Hall until the new city hall opened on Navajo Drive in the mid 1970s.
Ground breaking will be July 15, but preliminary work already has started, Ferguson said.
“But there is a flurry of activity around our building as we speak,” Ferguson said.
The first phase will be to construct a two-story parking garage east of the current police department, Ferguson said.
“One of the levels of the parking garage will be public parking, one of the levels will be secure police parking area,” Ferguson said.
When the parking garages are finished, the new police station will be constructed above the parking garage and will tie into the eastern end of the current police department’s building.
“That structure will attach to the existing police department building,” he said, noting that the police department is currently preparing for the construction by evacuating the offices on the east end of the department.
It’s not the first time officers have condensed into smaller spaces to accommodate the city’s needs. In 2014, after mold forced the abandonment of the former city hall, several of the city’s offices were housed inside the police department, Ferguson noted.
A grand lobby to both departments will be in the center of the new public safety building and will extend out further than the current building.
As people enter the lobby, the police department will be on the left, the fire administration will be on second floor on the right. Both floors of the west end of the building will be the new fire station.
“There will be four drive-through bays, so no more backing into the fire stations, which presents its own challenges and hazards,” Need said. “We’re looking forward to not having to back in to the fire station.”
The fire station will be state of the art, Need said, including protection of the firefighters from cancer-causing chemicals from fires that embed themselves into fire turnout gear.
A special decontamination room will be on the east end of the fire station’s first floor. The room will be used to clean equipment and turnout gear, as well as a place where firefighters can shower off carcinogens after returning from a fire.
“The gear, no matter how much you try and clean it, it’s still off-gassing carcinogens,” Need said. “So we’re putting that in it’s own room that’s venting that and not putting it to the rest of the fire station.”
Above the decontamination room will be a mezzanine where firefighters can train, and at the back of that space will be a 35-foot tower to properly dry fire hoses, as well as to train firefighters on how to drag heavy hoses up multistory buildings, Need said.
“It’s a mezzanine area that we can do a lot of training indoors out of the inclement parts of the weather,” Need said.
This space also will have the ability to train on rappelling and ladders.
On the far side of the new public safety building is the new Fire Station 2. The fire station’s second floor includes 10 unisex rooms for firefighters, as well as five bathrooms and showers for the staff, Need said. The first floor of the west end is the kitchen and living room area for the firefighters.
In the center area of the public safety center behind the lobby’s walls will be classrooms and meeting rooms for both departments, as well as a workout facility for both departments, Need and Ferguson said.
The center is being funded through Tax Incremental Financing funds controlled by the redevelopment commission, Ferguson said.
The center is expected to cost $71 million, and the bonds will be paid off in 10 years of less, Ferguson said.
The building is expected to open in the summer of 2028, Ferguson said.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Ground breaking July 15 on West Lafayette’s Public Safety Center
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
