The project to demolish the 80-year-old Fire Station No. 4 on Gillette Street has been a waiting game.
“We’ve been talking about replacing the old Station 4,” La Crosse Fire Department chief Ken Gilliam said.
Those plans have been in the works since 2018. “I’m adjusting strategy now to try and get something done in 2021,” Gilliam said.
But the new station for this year will not replace the department’s oldest one on Gillette Street. “I think all of us are unaware of things that are going on until they’re brought to our attention,” Gilliam said.
The La Crosse Preservation Alliance recently started a petition calling for the city to save Fire Station No. 4.
It has reached more than 300 signatures. “It is not our intent whatsoever to delay the progression of building a new fire station,” Preservation Alliance of La Crosse president Barb Kooiman said.
Kooiman says she wants a new station built on Gillette Street this year, but also the current one saved.