Pingree Grove fire station almost ready for bids
After a nearly yearlong delay Pingree Grove and Countryside Fire Protection District officials hope to break ground on a new fire station in April.
The estimated $3.2 million station will be built on about 3 acres west of Reinking Road just north of Route 72, at the entrance of the Cambridge Lakes North subdivision.
Fire officials initially hoped to break ground in March 2013.
The delay was the result of complex intergovernmental agreements regarding the purchase of the property — part of which was donated by the village — and the need to move a ComEd cable buried in the property, Fire Chief Mitch Crocetti said.
The station will serve an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people in the northwest corner of the district, which altogether covers 51 square miles, Crocetti said.
The village board last week approved site design elements related to fencing, curb cuts and night lighting, he said.
“We hope to be going out to bid no later than the end of month,” Crocetti said.
The district employs five full-time firefighters, including the chief, and about 55 on-call firefighters, Crocetti said.
The new station will replace the one on Reinking Road, built long before the newer Cambridge Lakes subdivisions, and will accommodate future growth, he said.
“We're just looking forward to having it completed,” he said. “I think the community is going to be very happy with it. For a satellite station it's a larger station, but we built it for the future.”
Responders now could be cut off from Cambridge Lakes if they get a call while a freight train is going through town, which hasn't happened so far, Crocetti said. The other two fire stations are even farther south.
The new station will be about 12,700 square feet and will have a community room for up to 50 people, available for use by the public, said architect Jonathan Tallman of Dewberry, an Elgin firm.
It will have individual sleeping quarters for up to seven firefighters, and a fitness room available to all district firefighters, Tallman said.
The fire district plans to sell the old fire station, with the village having first right of refusal, Crocetti said.