By Lindsay Weber
The Morning Call
ALLENTOWN, Pa. Allentown’s new, $65 million proposal to replace its Central Fire Station — the city’s busiest firehouse that is in deteriorating condition — would create a safety and wellness center that includes a new home for the health bureau.
Under the proposal unveiled Wednesday, the fire and EMS facility and the health bureau would operate out of two new, interconnected buildings at the corner of North Fourth and Turner streets near the city’s downtown. City officials plan to name the proposed complex the Allentown Life Safety and Wellness Center.
Central Fire Station, now located at 723 W. Chew St., was constructed in the 1920s and originally was a Chrysler car dealership before it was converted to a fire station in the 1950s. The 100-year old building is plagued with issues like roof and window leaks, mold, lack of storage space, holes in the walls and a crumbling building facade. It is not ADA-compliant, and lacks both space for firefighters to properly decontaminate their gear — which gets exposed to carcinogens and other hazards during fire responses — and separate facilities like locker rooms or bunk rooms for female firefighters.
“We heard a lot from fire department employees who said, ‘We make it work, we make it work,’ and I just want to emphasize that when you have that attitude, you’re taking an enormous amount of energy, resources, time and creativity into making your building work,” said Bekah Rusnock, director of development for Alloy5, the firm hired to conduct a feasibility study for the new complex.
“And working in an architecture firm, it is our job to make sure that building works for you. We are not seeing that right now at Central Fire.”
According to Alloy5 senior planner Michelle Mozingo, Central Fire Station is in “poor” condition per the firm’s standards, which rate buildings from “critical” to “excellent.” The building could become “critical” in the next one to three years in its current state, she said, which would mean firefighters and EMS workers would immediately need to relocate.
Alloy5 planners suggested the corner of North Fourth and Turner streets, which is currently a parking lot for Lehigh County Jail employees and is owned by the county. The new building would be around 65,000 square feet and house 65 city employees, with space to accommodate up to 90 employees as the city grows. The two buildings would connect to a parking deck for city and county jail employees. The health bureau building and fire and EMS building would be connected but with separate front entrances.
The city’s health bureau, which operates out of rented space in Alliance Hall two blocks away from Central Fire Station, also has deficiencies, planners said. The building is not ADA compliant, lacks storage space and has acoustic issues that could present HIPAA violations, because passers-by can overhear conversations inside of medical exam rooms.
Combining those three city departments would allow them to better coordinate amongst themselves, and create a more welcoming and open space for the public, officials said.
“In order to better serve the community without the nagging issues that being housed in century-old structures entails, it’s time for the city to invest in a new facility,” said Allentown Fire Chief Efrain Agosto. “A new facility would give all three departments ways of expanding. It’s just time to move on. We must look at a long-term solution and make sure that we are providing the right facility for our firefighters, paramedics and health professionals, but also we are providing the right facility that’s going to serve the public the way that it should.”
The land development and approval process could take up to 18 months, and construction between two and three years.
In a follow-up interview, Agosto said it was too early to say how the city would budget for the cost of the new building.
Allentown City Council last year voted to transfer $4.5 million in pandemic relief funds, originally allocated to a new fire station in its 2024 budget, toward a new police headquarters. City officials said that the transfer of those funds was necessary to meet a federal deadline because plans for the police building are further along. The city’s planning commission approved the police department’s plans last month, and construction could begin this year.
Negotiations with Lehigh County over the plot of land are ongoing, Agosto said, adding that county officials are “willing to entertain this idea, because it’s beneficial to them also.”
Agosto said the possibility that Central Fire could be in “critical” condition within the next one to three years is a “concern,” but he believes “as long as we have cooperation with building maintenance and everything continues to be maintained as well as it can be during that time, we should be able to function appropriately until the newer fire station is built.”
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