The Tri-Township Fire Department recently broke ground on a new station to replace one of its two current stations — Thurman Evans Station 331 — at 495 Sunbury Road in Delaware.
The new station will only be a mile down the road.
Brown Township’s Facebook page said earlier this week, “Groundbreaking ceremony today for the new Tri-Township fire department on Bowtown Road at the Byxbe campus. No timeline yet as to a completion date.”
Tri-Township Fire Chief Troy Morris said in Brown Township’s spring newsletter, “We have completed the land split for 2.2 acres on the Bowtown Road side of the Byxbe Campus (former Delaware Area Career Center North Campus) with Delaware County. At the March Fire Board meeting a contract with the architect was approved and signed. We will begin designing a new station to not only meet our current needs but for the future.
“We have been in contact with representatives of Ohio Department of Transportation in regard to the ‘Point Project’ and how it effects the Sunbury Road station,” Morris continued. “As part of the project, our site is needed to complete this project. The plan is to move the railroad to the east temporarily while the old overpass is removed and a new one installed and the road widened by two additional lanes. This project still has a start time of Spring 2022.”
During the July Brown Township Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee Charles Miley said “the point project will be delayed a year.” At the August meeting, Miley said the Tri-Township Board of Fire District Trustees “has been offered $650,000 for their old property. A real estate expert has agreed that this is a good offer.”
In May, Delaware County Director of Communications Jane Hawes said in the newsletter, “Progress on renovating the old north campus of the Delaware Area Career Center has slowed a little as the Commissioners decided to reject all the bids received in their first request for the redevelopment project. The bids came in significantly higher than anticipated, due to current volatilities in the price of materials in the construction market. As a result, the Commissioners have directed their staff to prepare a new request for bids. Meanwhile, design work for the project has continued with Columbus-based M+A Architects. Some of the better-known projects in the central Ohio area include: the Big Lots corporate headquarters, the White Castle Home Office, and the M/I Homes headquarters.”
The M+A Architects website said of the Byxbe campus, “The project entails the renovation of the former Delaware Area Career Center’s North Campus into offices for Code Compliance, Regional Planning, Engineering, Facilities, County Extension Office, Soil and Waters Division, and Roadways and Utilities. The renovated facility will be complemented by a new state-of-the-art Sheriff’s Office of 34,800-square-feet, a new engineering vehicle storage building, a new vehicle wash bay building, and a new fuel transfer station on the premises. The master plan of this property indicates locations for a future county dog shelter facility and sets land aside for a new township fire station.”
The Byxbe campus is named after Moses Byxbe (1784-1871), the co-founder of Delaware.
Station 331 at 495 Sunbury Road has been in operation since 1957. The district’s Station 332 is located at 660 Coover Road in Delaware.
