Remodel to provide emergency personnel with sleeping quarters
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
The City of Whitewater’s strengthened relationship with the long-independent fire and rescue department will soon have a tangible effect.
The Common Council on Nov. 17 approved conceptual plans to remodel a portion of the existing municipal building to accommodate sleeping quarters for the fire and rescue department’s emergency medical services (EMS) personnel.
As part of the plan, the city is enlisting the services of an architecture firm known as The Design Alliance. The total project is expected to cost $20,520.
Matt Amundson, parks and recreation director, has been overseeing the planning process.
“After a review of sites, it was important to identify a space that would provide not just a short-term approach, but a plan that could accommodate current and future growth,” Amundson said.
After making a series of tweaks elsewhere in the municipal building, Amundson said the changes not only will benefit EMS personnel, but all city staffers.
“The site selected is the current fitness center,” Amundson said. “The plan calls for a hallway to be constructed that provides access to both a male and a female sleeping quarters. A current storage area will be reconfigured to provide an improved fitness area for all staff.”
With the council behind the conceptual plan, Amundson and other persons involved in the project will now turn their attention toward soliciting bids from construction companies interested in tackling the remodel.
City Manager Cameron Clapper said accommodations for sleeping quarters has been a high-priority item for years, in part because a large number of the department’s volunteers live outside the city.
“To be on call, they often sleep in chairs,” Clapper said of the current scenario.
