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Fire station on Government gets a facelift

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BATON ROUGE - A well-known downtown Baton Rouge building is getting a facelift.

It is the first time in over 40 years the Robert A. Bogan fire station on Government Street has received any attention. It has not been remodeled since it opened in 1975.

Assistant Chief of Special Services Scott Pertuis said the station is being remodeled in a two-part series. The exterior of the building is being renovated now, and the exterior renovation will begin once that is completed.

"The new roof, the awnings, the windows, the handrails, like the stairwell right here, the handrails were all rusted," Pertuis said. "I mean you could hardly use it or nothing like that."

The project is funded by the city and mayor's office. Pertuis said they had the option to build a new building or remodel the existing one. He said remodeling is the way to go as far as tax payers are concerned.

"It is either that, or doze the fire station down, find somewhere for them to live for a year and a half, and spend about four and a half million dollars to rebuild this station," Pertuis said.

The renovation is less than half of that cost. The station expects the project to wrap up sometime in July.

"Get it where it is livable," Pertuis said. "I mean, these guys are here 24/7, 365 days a year."

Firefighters said that this change will make things easier for them and improve the work environment around the station.

"They have been talking about this for an extremely long time, and we are really excited to get it going and get it finished as well," firefighter Reuben Lee said.

The station said that not only will it boost the morale of the firefighters, but the new changes will also allow for faster response time.

"Help them help those citizens in a lot better fashion," Scott said.

And possibly help the station stay around for half another century.

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