Washington’s headquarters fire station at the intersection of North Market and Fifth streets will become a healthier place to work and live for firefighters/EMTs.

Washington’s City Council, during its Aug. 25 meeting, approved accepting a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the purchase and installation of a system that will remove vehicle exhaust from the station, which has several bays where emergency-response vehicles are parked. When those vehicles are started, they emit exhaust.

FEMA is providing $47,500 for the system, with the city providing $2,500. The FEMA firefighters grant was awarded Aug. 15, according to a memorandum from Robbie Rose, the city’s fire chief, to the mayor and City Council.

The council also amended the city’s budget to reflect the grants and approved grant project ordinance.

The exhaust removal system will be similar to the one installed at fire station No. 2 when it was built several years ago. The headquarters station is nearly 50 years old.

City Manager Brian Alligood said the exhaust removal system at the headquarters station will reduce the amount of toxic fumes firefighters/EMTs and other people may be exposed to.

The customer computer virtualization project at the city-run Brown Library won’t cost as much as budgeted ($25,000) as the low bid on the project came in at just under $8,000. The library has several computers available to library patrons. They use the computers to access the Internet to conduct research, search for jobs, access information about government services and apply online for some of those services.

The city plans to use some slightly more than $3,000 of the funds budgeted for the computer project to repair and maintain the library’s storage shed. The shed is used to store maintenance equipment and books for the Friends of the Brown Library’s annual book sale.

The proposed work on the shed includes pressure washing it, replacing rotten sections, roof improvements and scraping, sanding and painting the building.