Fox Crossing fire station to be demolished, board makes decision to replace engines

The used fire engine will come from the Village of Butler and cost $305,000 while repair for Fire Engine 41 is estimated at $322,000, the latter nearly all covered by insurance. It has not made a decision yet whether to restore the other two.

“Whether the insurance decides to repair or replace our current three trucks that were damaged,” said Fire Chief Todd Sweeney, “those are, on the repair side, a year out, and on the replace side probably much longer than that. So we have to figure out something in that year gap.”

Fox Crossing has been borrowing fire trucks from Grand Chute and Pierce Manufacturing respectively, but hopes to give them back soon. It would likely take a year until this restored fire engine is ready, while the purchased one would be ready almost immediately.

With one engine purchased and one restored, it’d be just one short of its typical fleet.

Fire station, community center will be demolished

Fire Station 41, located near Palisades Park just north of HWY-441, was significantly damaged by the tornado and will need demolition, according to Village Manager Jeff Sturgell.

“Our question was is this what you want to have when we rebuild, or are we going to look at something a little bit different,” said Sturgell.

The village plans to rebuild the fire station and community center at its current site at 1000 Valley Road with improvements.

“We actually do want to increase the size of Fire Station 41,” said Sturgell. “That was a very small station, not a lot of room for our firefighters.”

The Fire Department’s central office, Station 40, is okay, and the department is currently running its eastside operations out of a village building near the destroyed Station 41. Any further details are still a ways out.

“Until the insurance numbers come in, it’s hard to make decisions without those numbers,” said Sweeney.

Village may also build westside community center

With the village’s community center now destroyed, Sturgell said it’s working to build a small community center space on the west side while it plans to rebuild the destroyed eastside community center. Right now, park pavilions are the only community spaces to meet.

“We may be adjusting on the east side,” said Sturgell, in light of the plans to build a westside community center. “Maybe that footprint would be a little bit smaller.”

Village Board authorized funds from emergency fund

The Village Board also approved and reallocated another $2,741,769, in addition to the fire engine costs.

• $1.8 million for contracted street debris cleanup, grinding and hauling
• $407,000 for park expenses, most notably cleanup of Palisades Park
• $127,000 additional expenses for the Fire Department
• $65,000 to raze and remove the Fox Crossing Community Center

Most of these costs have already been incurred, with a few still projected. This money comes from the village’s Stabilization Fund, an emergency fund for situations like this, meaning no tax rates will be raised for the cleanup process.

The new fire station and community center could require tax rate increases, depending on how much insurance covers.

Sturgell said he feels Fox Crossing is in a great spot heading into autumn.

“The whole Fox Cities has really pitched in to help out,” said Sturgell. “I so very much appreciate that, and that’s why I love living here in Fox Crossing and in the Fox Cities.”