Trustees pare Sylvania fire station sites to 3

Gene Eggleston speaks against building a Sylvania fire station at Monroe Street and Parkwood Boulevard. That proposed location has been discarded. Trustees chairman Carol Contrada, below, says trustees hope to pick a location soon.

The number of possible locations for a fire station to replace the one in downtown Sylvania has been reduced to three.

The finalists are: property at the Sylvania Township hall on Holland-Sylvania Road, a site at Centennial and Sylvania-Metamora roads, and downtown at Haymarket Square at Main and Erie streets.

The new list, which the township trustees decided on at a special meeting last week, significantly omits a previous potential site - at Monroe Street and Parkwood Boulevard. That site idea generated neighborhood opposition, and the site of the current station at 6633 Monroe St. has issues too.

"We continue to look for the best possible site for the community," Carol Contrada, the trustees' chairman, said.

The township, which handles fire protection for the city, plans to replace the firehouse, called Station No. 1, with a $1.5 million, 8,000- square-foot structure.

The 1.5-acre parcel at Monroe and Parkwood was favored by the fire department, but vigorously opposed by neighbors, who were concerned their property values would fall and did not want to be subjected to the noise of sirens.

Sylvania City Council last month recommended the township rebuild Station No. 1 at its existing location, but township officials balked at that site because of its small size, poor sight lines on Monroe, and the complication of providing temporary quarters during construction.

San Reno Drive resident Gene Eggleston, a vocal opponent of the Monroe-Parkwood site, said he was delighted the trustees dropped it from consideration.

"They're finally paying attention," he said. "The noise and the restrictions there would be too much. That's just no place for a fire station."

Ms. Contrada agreed. "Parkwood looked good on a map, but it would not have been so good in real life," she said.

She said the trustees hoped to make a decision on a location by mid-March.