The Mehlville Fire Protection District will be installing a new safety climb and ladder system at its training tower near Engine House No. 7.

At the Nov. 18 meeting, the MFPD Board of Directors unanimously approved a bid from Mercury Communications Contractors for $14,450 for the installation of a safety climb and ladder system at the training tower located near Engine House No. 7, 5501 Old Lemay Ferry Road. The tower is 1,500 feet tall.

“In order to continue to maintain tower safety regulations that have changed, we’re going to be required to put a safety climb and install a ladder on the exterior,” said Chief Brian Hendricks. “We anticipate in the next two to three years some additional maintenance that’s going to be required … so in order to be able to consider that, or to maintain the safety of the contractors that work on that structure now, we need to install a new ladder system.”

The district received three bids in response to its request for bids, although two of the bidders did not meet the district’s bidding criteria, “which didn’t turn out to be a bad thing because the one contractor that did meet all of the requirements … was the low bid,” Hendricks said.