State money will help Wilmette improve fire stations, including gender-neutral updates

A pair of Wilmette fire stations that are each upwardsof 60 years old are now primed for “long-overdue” updates thanks to a burst of state funding.

Wilmette trustees during their Tuesday, Sept. 8 meeting approved a contract for architectural services to begin what officials described as a “modernization” of Fire Stations No. 26 and No. 27.

Fire Station 26, built in 1964 and Fire Station 27, constructed in 1958, are located on properties that Wilmette officials say “are limited to expansion and major upgrades.”

According to a village memo from Wilmette Fire Chief Brian Lambel, a space-needs study conducted in late 2025 suggested options for each fire station including “renovations to improve functionality, workflow, circulation, firefighter quality of life, and worker safety.”

This year, per Lambel, Wilmette received a $350,000 grant spearheaded by Illinois State Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-18th District) for fire station health and firefighter living condition improvements.

Village President Senta Plunkett said during Tuesday’s meetings that the stations “don’t meet today’s standards for functionality, fire safety and quality of life.”

She added that “this project, funded through this grant, will improve fire station health and living conditions by updating the sleeping quarters at Fire Station No. 27 and installing airlock vestibules between the sleeping common areas and the operating bays.”

The funds will be used to improve sleeping quarters at Fire Station No. 27 as well as create airlock vestibules at both stations, according to Lambel.

The existing bunk room at Station 27, per Lambel’s memo, is an “open bunk room with no privacy.” The project’s scope will include eliminating the seven bunk spaces and replacing with them five individual, gender-neutral bunk rooms with individual locker room areas and privacy doors for each bunk space.

Additionally, the grant funds will support airlock vestibules between the apparatus bay floor and the living quarters. These vestibules are “physical and atmospheric buffer zones to prevent temperatures and air contaminants from entering the first station living quarters.”

Plunkett also noted that the updates will create a more gender-neutral station design and could help aid the department in recruiting more women firefighters.

“We have long had difficulty attracting women to our fire service and this step is long overdue,” she said.

Village trustees during Tuesday’s session paid thanks to Gabel, who was also in attendance, for helping Wilmette secure funds for the renovations.

Gabel, who also serves as the Illinois House Majority Leader, expressed her support for the use of the funds.

“I’m so pleased that these state funds will help provide separate locker rooms for women firefighters and hopefully be an incentive as the village recruits more female firefighters to the community,” she said.

“These types of projects are exactly what the Illinois State Capital Funds should be used for: improving our communities while also providing really high-quality construction jobs,” she later added. “I am so pleased that we can use these funds for this purpose.”

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