The following article is from the December 21, 2009 issue of the Courier Post, the original content can be found on their web site. It was written by Jeremy Rosen of the Courier Post Staff.

The process is again under way for what officials said are essential enhancements to Medford's busiest fire station.

After project bids came in too high last month, Medford council members adopted a larger spending ordinance last week to fund fewer improvements to the 34-year-old Union Fire Station.

The larger, $700,000 ordinance is $200,000 more than the one previously adopted for the project. Still, officials said they're unsure how much the improvements will end up costing.

"There were reservations" about funding the project in these economic times, Deputy Mayor Bob Martin said. "We had to scale back, but we're committed to it and it's very important for a town to have a good fire department and people volunteering."

Martin and Steve Addezio, Medford's public safety director, said the building is at the point where it needs to be modernized to better serve the community.

Addezio said the first capital improvements to the building at 1 Firehouse Lane include a 1,500 square-foot addition, a new engine room, new doors for the station's seven engine bays, a room for protective equipment that will allow firefighters to decontaminate and wash gear, a training room with computers, electrical upgrades, bunk rooms for overnight duty crews and fire administration offices. He said the township's six full-time daytime firefighters work at small cubicles in the police department, overnight crews sleep in a "small space" and gear is sanitize at the township's Taunton Fire Station.

To save thousands of dollars, Martin said officials narrowed the project, for example by authorizing the replacement of a portion of the engine room's cracked floor rather than the whole floor. The station's new office, training and sleeping spaces will be on the station's second floor, which officials said is a banquet hall designed to be rented for functions.

"That business isn't there anymore," Martin said. "This makes it a better place for firefighters, better serves the community and can help attract younger volunteers."

About half of the township's 80 volunteers work out of the Union Fire Station that Addezio said annually handles two-thirds of fire calls in town, which was about 820 calls last year, according to state figures.

The township expects to open bidding for the project in January and award a contract in February the next month, Addezio said. Work on the station could start in the spring.