The Ben Lomond Firehouse Building Committee, under Chairman Dave Bingham, held an open house March 6 for all its firefighters to meet with the architects and project engineers and to see preliminary plans for a proposed rebuild firehouse.

It was a very open meeting, with much discussion and the sharing of more than 200 years of combined experience on the needs of firefighters.

The architects explained each location for each function and how they related. The firefighters agreed and disagreed and made valuable suggestions.

What a wonderful way to check out the design thinking and be sure that real needs are met. It was a real team sharing.

Next stop is for the architects to rework the design and come back for a second open-house discussion. The architects are specialists in firehouse construction in California, having built more than 40, but not many for volunteer departments, so the firefighters’ input was very useful.

William Burton, Ben Lomond