Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-18
FIRE STATION
Its Construction Will Be Rec
commended to City Council.
LIMIT PLACED AT $4,000
The Department Will be ReorganiZed
and the City Hall Station
Eventually Abandoned
LIMIT PLACED Al $4,000

Mayor Harrington. Aldermen Page,
Melcher and Rowan, and Chief Flannery
VI the IRE department. constituting the
special committee to which, at the last
meeting of the council, was referred the
matter of the new fire station which the
city contemplates building at the corner
of Arizona and Mercury streets. met last
evening in the city clerks office. and
a1ter canVassing the situation thorough
~ decided to report to the council at it's
next meeting a recommendation that the
new station be built, and that municipal
legislation looking to it's immediate con-
struction be pushed with all possible ex-
petition.
1t will be remembered that this matter
was agitated in the council last fall and
came very near coming to a head. The
matter had progressed to the extent that
bid for the construction of the building
were asked for and submitted. However,
the lowest bid submitted was 14,5OO, a
figure too stiff for the council, which had
placed the limit of expenditures in this
direction at $40, O0e. The council was
willing to pay the limit but did not pro-
pose to go above it SO per cent, and as a
result of the stiff figures submitted the
bids were not considered, and the prop
osltion of the new fire station received a
q%uietus, from which it is just recover
ing.
The members of the special committee
went after the plans of Architect White
last night with a sharp pruning knife,
and they hacked and shaved off all
attempt at ornamentation. The plans
Tor terra Gotta effects were cut out, the
heighth of the ground floor of the pro-
posed station was reduced from 16 to IA
feet and that Of the second floor from IA
to II feet. The hallway on the second
floor was cut out entirely and an unfin-
ished loft substituted instead. The hay
loft scheme will not only save the expense
of a finished hallway, but will enable the
city to buy it's hay for the department
horses in carload lots, which will result
in a material saving. Finally when the
edge of the pruning knife had become
somewhat dull, the committe rested and
the architects assistants, who We're pres
ent, announced that the committee had
accomplished it's purpose and the plans
had been altered to the extent that they
would permit of the construction of a
station, the expense of which would be
within the $4,000 limit placed upon this
work by the ways and means committee
of the city council. The new plans will
also provide for q steam heating plant,
which was not considered by the contrac-
tors who submitted bids to the council
last fall.
The building of the new fire station at
the corner of Arizona and Mercury will
mark the Inauguration of a plan which
contemplates the reorganization of the
department, and which includes the con-
struction Of a second new station on
Quartz street adjoining the old station
and the final abandonment of the city
hall as a fire station. The central station
will not be abandoned for some time how
ever, and when it is the lower floor of
the city hall will be renovated and re-
constructed for the use of the police de-
partment, as the growth and Importance
Of the city demands. The plan of reor-
ganiZation outlines much Improvement
and betterment in the department in
many ways and an increase of eight OF
ten firemen.