City council to hear why La Crosse needs new fire station

First, find a way to replace the Gillette St. fire station. Then, build a station on the far, south side of La Crosse.

Those are the leading priorities for fire coverage going to the La Crosse city council for its February cycle of meetings.

Even though a task force produced a priority list, La Crosse fire chief Ken Gilliam doesn’t want to push the council too fast into setting a timeline.

“Ultimately they’re the ones that gotta figure out how we’re going to pay for a sizeable project like that,” Gilliam said. “So, coming out of the February council meeting, if we get that direction over the next couple months, we’ll be updating you guys as we get a little bit clearer picture of where we’re going fiscally.”

Gilliam said building a fifth fire station is very high on the needs list.

The fire station task force wish list came out just before Christmas. This week, city council committees will look at that list.

“If we can get that north and the south station going as the initial steps,” Gilliam said, “it gives us a little bit more time to work with what’s left in the middle and how we can reconfigure things for the next 50-100 years.”

The newest fire stations in La Crosse both opened in the late 1960s. The Gillette St. station turns 80 this year.