Struthers considers building new main fire station

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Struthers considers building new main fire station
Story by By Jeanne Starmack in the Youngstown Vindicator on 1/24/2009.

STRUTHERS — Deteriorating conditions at the city’s main fire station have prompted administrators to consider building a new one, but paying for it might mean asking for more in taxes.

Economic times are tough, say the city’s fire chief and mayor. But the Elm Street station’s floor can’t support the weight of the two engines it was keeping there. One of them is now in storage in a building in the CASTLO Industrial Park, said fire Chief Harold Milligan Jr. The city’s third engine, he said, is at the second station on Frank Avenue across the river.

Milligan said a spring under the Elm Street building is contributing to the problems with the floor.

When the station was being built in 1943, he explained, the discovery of the spring prompted the builders to back off building an entire basement. They built half a basement and backfilled the other half, he said. The backfill has settled and shifted over the decades, causing a wall that separates the filled area from the rest of the basement to develop cracks. The city discovered air space under the floor two years ago and cut the floor out, pouring in thicker concrete, Milligan said.