After almost 40 years since its last major renovation, Shawnee’s Fire Station 71 is ready to show off its new look.
The John B. Glaser Fire Station 71, 6501 Quivira Road, which also serves as the Shawnee Fire Department’s headquarters, will have its grand reopening to the public this Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
The celebration will showcase the approximately $13.7 million renovation project, which was centered on creating better workflow arrangements at the station to shorten emergency response times and also features improvements to firefighters’ quality of life while maintaining room on site for future expansion.
This is the second fire station renovation completed this year
In April, the Shawnee Fire Department opened the renovated Fire Station 73, near 67th Street and Kansas Highway 7.
The two redone fire stations share similar features, including:
- individual sleeping quarters where firefighters can control lighting, temperature and the volume of alarms (within reason), to allow for privacy and alleviate stress when they’re at the station;
- rearrangements to the space that allow for a better workflow so firefighters and emergency staff can get to vehicles faster;
- an improved alert system that routes calls to their respective emergency teams. (For instance, firefighters on the water rescue team will only hear calls pertaining to water rescues);
- and designated areas and better ventilation for crews coming back from an emergency call that allows for firefighters to clean themselves and their gear while avoiding prolonged exposure to contaminants and, as Chief Rick Potter said, preventing the development of longer term diseases like cancer.
Because the Glaser station is also the department’s headquarters, it also includes improved administration facilities, offices and a conference room, as well as calming features, like a running waterfall in the main hallway.
“We’re trying to focus on the mental health and behavioral health part of our personnel, in addition to the cancer prevention initiative,” Potter said. “There’s just some features like (the waterfall) that we did to try to change the environment that we’re working in to help with those things.”
The building was erected in 1979
Originally constructed as a joint police and fire facility, Fire Station 71’s last major renovation was in 1987.
In 2010, the building was named after John Bradford Glaser, a Johnson County native and Shawnee firefighter who died that year in the line of duty.
In 2021, the fire department made note of the station’s aging infrastructure, including its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, as well as privacy concerns for its staff.
A year later, it received approval from the Shawnee City Council for the joint $26.2 million renovation project for both Fire Stations 71 and 73.
This project is included in the City’s Capital Improvement Program and will be debt-financed, according to city documents. Funding sources for the bond payments will be revenues generated from the Johnson County Courthouse sales tax and the Public Safety sales tax.
Throughout the building are homages to the building’s past, from art and photos of old Shawnee fire trucks and staff to remnants of the old jail cells.
“(In one room), you can still see where the walls were previously and you can see where the jail cells were in the old police building,” Potter said. “It kind of captures the history, that this used to be a public safety building, which was fire and police. Now, we’re able to capture even some of the history of our brothers and sisters in blue.”
The renovations are meant for the future
Potter said not all the effects of the renovation are expected to be felt immediately.
“The impacts of the things that we’re doing now are 10, 15, 20 years down the road, where we’re not seeing quite as much of the cancer that we’re seeing today and maybe we start changing the tide on suicide,” he said.
Looking forward to meeting with people on Saturday, Potter said he’s excited to show people how their tax dollars are improving the lives of the city’s emergency workers.
“This is taxpayer-funded, so our residents are the ones that have paid for this,” he said. “Hopefully, when they come through, they see that we try to be good stewards of city’s funds and at the same time, making something that the community can be proud of, the fire department can be proud of, and something that will serve the community well.”
