Josh Kleinbaum
A firefighter sat in the lounge of Fire Station 29 on Monday
afternoon, cell phone plastered to one ear, with the glow of a large
television supplying the only illumination.
The image is deceptive -- it appears modern and comfort- able, but
it is out of place in a 42-year-old building in need of a face-lift.
"There are problems with the tiles, leaking ceilings," Glendale
Fire Chief Chris Gray said. "Firefighters should have a nice place to
work and live in, and if you've got things with broken pipes and
leaking fixtures, it's really not good."
Station 29 has a handful of problems and last week, the Glendale
City Council approved $83,500 to give it a face-lift.
In the captain's office, four computers are squeezed onto three
desks, and a handful of firefighters try to get work done without
enough space to do it, officials said.
A rat often emerges from a small hole in the kitchen wall, looking
for a meal.
The dormitories have lumpy mattresses, and an exterminator
recently came to the station to get rid of the bedbugs.
"It's a very old station," Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird
said. "We anticipate this station is going to need more than just an
update in the next several years. But to make it livable and continue
its usefulness, we had to do this."
For now, the face-lift will have to do. The Fire Department plans
to replace carpeting, tiling and kitchen cabinets, buy new
mattresses, put a plastic floor in the gym, knock down a wall and
expand the office.
But these repairs are little more than a Band-Aid, and eventually
the station will need surgery or have to be replaced.
Starbird said three stations -- the Montrose station and two in
north Glendale -- are all more than 40 years old and could be
replaced in the next five years. Station 29, he said, is a candidate
in part because of its location -- since it's near the border between
Montrose and unincorporated La Cre- scenta, it usually only responds
in one direction.
"We'll either put a lot of money into them or look at where
they're located," Starbird said. "It's a question we'll be asking on
all of our older stations, including Montrose."
Reporter Darleene Barrientos
contributed to this article.
