News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Township Fire Chief Mark Hansen points at some of the areas of the south side fire station that will soon be covered with a facade. He said 23 local businesses pitched in to help pay for an exterior remodeling project to spruce up the old building.

ALPENA — Alpena Township’s south side fire station will get a facelift made possible by the generosity of local residents and businesses.

Over the last several weeks, township Fire Chief Mark Hansen and his staff have power washed, scraped paint, and spread new paint to improve the appearance of the small station on State Avenue. Crews will add a new metal facade to the front of the building next week.

Hansen said that, after the township Board of Trustees voted to deny his request for the money to purchase the needed materials for the project, he began to call local businesses, 23 of whom committed to donate money or materials to get the project off the ground. He said the fact that nearly two dozen businesses from inside and outside the township committed to help in less than 24 hours left him speechless.

“After the Board of Trustees voted against giving me the funding to do the project, I just sort of went on a little campaign to get it done and, within a day, I had the funds raised to do it,” he said. “I have to tell you, I was quite humbled by the support of the community. With everything that is going on, it was a nice breath of fresh air.”

Hansen said he did much of the power washing, but he had a paid-on-call employee help him with painting. He said it was a team effort and a contractor will wrap up the project with the new facade.

Hansen said it was important to the department to make the building look as nice as possible because it is located in a business district on a busy road, where most surrounding buildings have a clean new look. Hansen said his employees love the department and the station, and having it look nicer will help boost morale.

“As everyone probably knows, the condition of the building looked pretty bad, and, with the effort out there to beautify the south corridor, it only made sense to spruce it up,” he said. “I think we all know anytime there is something new or improved, it increases morale. That’s a given.”

Hansen said he wanted to thank all of the people who helped make the project a reality and hopes they are pleased when they see the final outcome.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” he said. “I didn’t have the money in my budget, and they all really came through to make this happen.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.