Former Coast Guard Station to Become Park Township, MI, Fire Station
PARK TOWNSHIP, MI - A lakeshore community has completed its purchase of a vacated Coast Guard station.
Park Township now owns the property at 2280 Ottawa Beach Road.
The township plans to renovate the building into a new water rescue operations facility. It will house the Park Township Fire Department’s marine division and will become its Station 3.
The facility will continue to function as the home base for the Ottawa County Marine Division and the Department of Natural Resources patrol.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house are planned for April.
“We look forward to providing a new service to the community – water safety and water security for our residents, neighbors and visitors,“ said Scott Gamby, fire chief, in a press release.
The property is on Lake Macatawa and near Holland State Park.
The department took to the waters last year on personal watercraft and rescued people in distress in the waters of Lake Macatawa, the channel and Lake Michigan.
It cost the township $1.4 million to purchase the property from the U.S. Coast Guard.
The state of Michigan allocated $600,000 in the current budget for the purchase of the building, and $800,000 in ARPA funds completed the purchase.
Renovations are expected to begin around March and the station will be operating by summer.
A 2022 consolidation with the U.S. Coast Guard station in Grand Haven resulted in the recent closure of the Holland station. Prior to its closure, the station was staffed between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year.
The building, built in 1992, is 1,750 square feet on the first floor with an 837-square-foot second floor.
Plans call for a cleanup of the building, repairs done to an exterior stairway and possible restroom improvements.
The fire department’s marine division is responsible for 18 miles of shoreline, including six miles along Lake Michigan.
The marine division also has mutual and automatic aid agreements that extend to the waters around Windmill Island and reach as far east as the Black River.
The station intends to utilize a full-time EMS unit, allowing for a docking location to stage emergency water rescues and reduce response times in the summer.
Two full-time firefighters will staff the station, with additional paid, on-call firefighters staffing as needed.
The township owns two “specially equipped personal watercrafts” and is working on a proposal to purchase a rescue boat in the near future as the township budget allows, according to a press release.
The fire department also plans to have firefighters teach boater safety classes to all 8th-grade students enrolled in the West Ottawa School District.
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