He’ll be the biggest and stoutest firefighter at Lawrence Fire Station No. 5, and – go figure – his full-time job will be as a greeter.

City commissioners tonight are scheduled to approve a $65,510 contract for a new 7-foot-6-inch bronze sculpture of a firefighter that will stand outside the main entrance of the city’s newest fire station near 19th and Iowa streets.

“It’s really going to be a very heroic-looking piece,” said Marlene Merrill, chairwoman of the Lawrence Arts Commission. “I think it will make a nice statement about our firefighters and our community.”

The sculpture is part of the city’s Percent for Art program, which requires the city to spend at least 1 percent of the cost of every new public building construction project on art.

The sculpture depicts a firefighter dressed in full bunker gear, much like how a Lawrence firefighter would prepare to enter a burning building.

A bronze sculpture of a firefighter in full bunker gear, created by artist Benjamin Victor, of Aberdeen, S.D., will stand outside Fire Station No. 5, near 19th and Iowa streets.

“To me, it really reflects that a firefighter is equipped and ready to go into battle, so to speak,” Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Chief Mark Bradford said. “I love it.”

The piece is scheduled to go near the east entrance of the building. That area also is the planned site of a memorial to firefighter Mark Blair, who was killed battling an intentionally set fire at a Lawrence home in 1986.

The sculpture – by Benjamin Victor of Aberdeen, S.D. – was chosen from proposals submitted by 62 artists. It tentatively is scheduled to be in place by December.

The new art piece could be the first of many for the city. A committee has begun the process of receiving nominations for art at Fire Station No. 4, which is under construction in the 2100 block of Wakarusa Drive.

And several large building projects could produce some grand pieces of art in future years. For example, if the city follows its policy of using at least 1 percent of a project’s cost, the city’s new sewer plant – which easily could be $80 million – would mandate the purchase of $800,000 worth of new public art, though the city would not have to require it all to be at the sewer plant. A public library could generate $300,000 or more for artwork.

“It is very exciting to think about,” Merrill said.