The Salina Fire Department’s new Station 4, located at the intersection of E. Crawford and Markley Road, is beginning to take shape.

According to Battalion Chief Kirk Stover, the new facility has already seen concrete work completed, with steel framing set to begin soon.

“The project is on track to be completed within its 390-day schedule,” said Stover. Originally budgeted at $11 million, the final bid came in significantly lower at $9 million. “The contractor and subcontractors are doing a fine job,” he added.

The new station replaces the original Station 4, which was built in the 1960s at E. Crawford and Marymount and was only designed to accommodate a single fire truck. Today, the department’s needs have evolved significantly.

“EMS calls now make up 80% of our call volume,” Stover explained. “We need space for both a fire truck and an ambulance, along with a crew of five.”

In addition to expanded personnel and apparatus needs, the new station will also accommodate specialty units including hazardous materials, technical rescue, and water rescue equipment. “A lot of the additional space is simply for storage,” Stover noted. “It may look bigger, but that’s by necessity.”

The station will include five apparatus bays and is part of the city’s long-term planning. “We build our stations to last 50 years,” said Stover. “Station 3 on Belmont, which opened in 1985, was considered large at the time, and we’ve already outgrown it.”

Older stations, such as Station 1 and Station 2 — built in the 1950s and 1960s respectively — are landlocked and undergo renovations rather than being relocated. The new Station 4 is designed to meet current and future demands for decades to come.