NOVI, Mich. – The city of Novi hopes to educate the public about an upcoming bond proposal that voters can approve or deny this August.
The reality is Novi has seen tremendous growth over the last couple of decades, and therefore, so have their emergency response teams, but crews tell me their facilities are made for what life used to look like here in Novi, and that’s not cutting it.
Novis fire stations 1, 2, and 3 and their public safety headquarters were all built between 1978 and 1981.
“We have utilized every corner of the building that we could possibly utilize,” said Novi police Chief Erick Zinser.
Zinser gave Local 4 a walk-through of the police station, showing us how they’re maxed out on space.
“The female locker room is full. The male locker room is full. So we talk about expanding our workforce, we don’t have anywhere to put them,” Zinser said.
Zinser showed us how tight it was in the women’s locker room. He said it was once filled up inside before adding a little section because they needed more lockers as they wanted to encourage female officers.
Expanding the workforce has been happening for decades as Novi continues to grow.
“If you were to look back 45 years, Novi’s population was about 22,000 residents. We’re at 67,000 or 68,000 currently in 2025. So you can imagine how much the community has grown, our public safety personnel teams have grown,” said Novi Director of Communications Sheryl Walsh-Malloy.
Walsh-Malloy said that to alleviate this problem, new facilities need to be built, but the city will need taxpayer money to do so.
They’re proposing a $120 million bond, which would include replacing fire stations 1, 2, and 3 and renovations to fire station 4.
The city is asking for $1 million, so if the market value of your home is $400,000, your taxable value is $200,000. $1 million on that is $200 per year. The bond would last for 25 years.
“If the ballot initiative was to pass in August, we would immediately begin the design of the new facilities this fall,” Walsh-Malloy said.
Zinser says even though the departments are tight on space, response times are still extremely efficient. However, as he looks to the future, the facilities need to attract talent to keep response times quick and he’d like to see a facility that was better suited for the female firefighters and police officers.
“If you want to be a female firefighter, and you know that you don’t have a locker room, you don’t have a bathroom, and if you have to take a shower, you have to lock the door or have somebody stand guard at the door while you’re doing that,” Zinser said.
Zinser said they have 20% female staff in their police department, and they’re really proud of that number, which is way different than it was in the 80s when the facility was built.
Of course, it’s all up to the voters come Aug. 5. If the bind doesn’t pass, the city will plan to update the facilities, but they’ve told me that’s only a short-term fix to something that eventually needs to be done.
