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Toledo Fire station prepares for Monroe Street closing

Local first responders are preparing for a major road closing that is coming to west Toledo next week.

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Local first responders are preparing for a major road closing that is coming to west Toledo next week.

The Monroe Street bridge will close for 90 days over Interstate 475. Businesses around the area are expecting less customers than usual.

Making pizza or tacos has been a 60-year family tradition for Ron Hashim, manager at the Jo-Jo's Original Pizzeria. But with Monroe Street set to close next Tuesday, he's expecting a 25 to 30 percent loss of business.

"I'm sure we will take a hit. But we're going to try to do different specials to keep people coming in. Maybe make it worth their while, coming around the bridge," Hashim said.

The closure will also make it harder for Toledo Firefighters. Station 25 on Central Avenue covers any emergencies on Monroe Street, and they use it just about every day.

Private Sterling Rahe showed the computer aided dispatching system that is in the fire trucks. Someone will program the computer with the information on the bridge closing and it will give the driver alternate routes.

They won't be left wondering, when that call comes in.

"Our dispatchers are well trained up there. They always have the ability to override that, so if they see something in the system and have the location of a rig that's much closer than the computer sees, they can go ahead and override that," Rahe said.

He also said the response times to emergencies should not be any different.

There are many other roads that you can take to get around the closing. The official detour will use Central Avenue and Secor Road.

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