New fire station will serve Rolling Meadows' south side

The newest Rolling Meadows fire station be on Algonquin Road, just west of Weber Drive.

The city council recently approved the site as the future home of the two-bay fire station, said City Manager Tom Melena.

Once built, the new fire station will reduce response times to southern parts of the city, said Rolling Meadows Fire Chief Ron Stewart.

"Especially to areas south of Central and east of Route 53," Stewart said. "The response time to anywhere in the city should be four minutes or less, and we exceed that at times in those area."

More specifically, the fire department meets that 4-minute mark only around 30 percent of the time in some parts of southern Rolling Meadows, Stewart said.

The new station will be around 7,000 square feet, he said.

The project will be financed by a bond sale to the tune of $1.2 million, Melena said.

"The bonds have already been issued," he said. "The money is sitting in our account."

Eventually, the city will also hire three firefighters to staff the station. The firefighters will each cost around $86,000 per year including wages and benefits.

Taxes to pay the firefighters and keep the station running will come in part from the developers of Woodfield Gardens, Melena said.

Pine Tree Commercial Realty of Northbrook has options to buy three small strip shopping centers in the area as well as 12 Oaks at Woodfield, 19 two-story buildings with 1,500 units formerly known as Woodfield Gardens.

Pine Tree plans office towers up to 20 stories tall, retail, senior housing and a hotel.

Melena said the plans are "moving along" but couldn't say when the city council would hear an updated plan.

Preliminary designs of the new fire station will be presented to the city council on March 18.

Construction on the station should begin late this year and it should open in early 2009, Stewart said. Once the new station opens, Rolling Meadows will have three fire stations.