Oskaloosa Fire Station Moving Towards Next Phase

Oskaloosa Fire Department remains ready to serve the community during the transition and final stages of renovation.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The addition and renovation of the Oskaloosa Fire Station has been years in the making. Planning and designing have lead to brick and mortar of a multi-bay addition. Now, contractors are turning towards the existing station.

Oskaloosa Fire Chief Mark Neff said the department took temporary occupancy of the new structure on March 22nd, but the transition will be ongoing for several months as the department clears out and moves all equipment from the old building into the new.

After the renovation of the 100 year-old structure is completed, the department will then move needed equipment and supplies back into the renovated portion of the building.

While some of the larger apparatus will call the new portion of the building home, items like brush trucks and trailers will be housed in the old portion of the building.

“We are operational”, says Neff.

“Office areas are also being moved into the new structure. We’re kind of living out of boxes right now”

Those boxes will all be unpacked and the facility will be ready to serve the public in the next few months.

Since Fire Station No. 2 was torn down in 2013, equipment and apparatus have been stored either outside or stuffed into nooks and crannies inside the original 1909 structure. The Mahaska County Emergency Management building has also housed some apparatus.

“It’s going well,” says Neff. “The logistics of all of this have been interesting”.

Renovations of the 1909 building are due to be completed in May of this year, and Neff hopes to have things in place permanently short thereafter.

No date has been set for an open house or ribbon cutting ceremony.