By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
A new fire station is coming to St. Joseph.
The St. Joseph Fire Department had a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction Thursday.
The new station will be replacing the current one at 33rd Street and Mitchell Avenue with the new location at Mitchell Avenue and Lenard Road.
St. Joseph Fire Chief Mike Dalsing says this will be the second station the city has on the east side of the Belt Highway.
"It's extremely important in terms of time," Dalsing tells St. Joseph Post. "65% of our calls are medical calls, so we're going to be able to support the university, Deer Park, the two industrial parks out here, so we're pretty excited."
Dalsing says the dirt work just started after being delayed by recent rain.
"Usually takes about three years total to get a station up," says Dalsing. "We've been working on it for two years so we're expecting about this time next year that they will be really close to completion."
Dalsing notes that the basement of the new fire station will have an Emergency Operation Center. He hopes the fire station will be finished and ready to be put to use this time next year.
