BY TRACY LEE TATE
Special to the Times
Fears of a budget shortfall for the construction of the fire station in Providence became a reality at a special meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners on April 29.
As reported in The Times a few weeks ago, at the pre-bid conference, the project engineer reported that, due to the rise in labor and materials costs, the county’s appropriation for the project would likely be insufficient to cover the cost of construction. It was not until the bids were opened that this prediction became a reality.
There were six bids for the project. When the bids were opened last week, the lowest bid from Union Lasteel was $1,547,500. This is about $650,000 more than the money left from the appropriation after the engineering and design were completed ($850,000 appropriation minus $69,000 for engineering and design costs).
Phil Bishop, vice president and construction engineering director for North Florida Professional Services, the project engineers, told commissioners that the bids were “in line with other projects we have done recently as to labor and materials costs.”
No Taj Mahal. No gingerbread.
Commissioner Donna Jackson asked about the project, saying she was not on the board when the project was conceived or designed.
“Is this project a Taj Mahal or a plain functional building,” she asked Bishop.
The VP replied that the project was “a functional building with no gingerbread.”
Commissioner Jimmy Tallman said he could remember the county’s last fire station project, the station at Lulu, cost only $55,000 to build. Bishop and County Coordinator Jimmy Williams reminded him that this station was not simply a place to park trucks but was designed with three bays and living quarters to serve as a manned station.
It has been stated several times that the county is working toward manned stations that will allow quicker response times, helping to lower citizens’ insurance rates.
Jackson said she was “shocked and dismayed at the cost.”
Williams told the board that the project needed to move forward and that it should do its due diligence and review the plans to see where cuts could be made or specific design features put on hold until a later phase of construction.
“We may need to do an addendum to the plans with the changes in place and then rebid the project,” Williams said. He said the changes would not present a problem with the state’s approval of the project, as the appropriation had been requested to meet minimum standards.
Possible cuts
Possible changes that could be made to the project to cut costs include reducing the amount of paved area. However, the entrance and exit areas of the property would require paving due to the requirements FDOT has for such access to roadways, reducing the size of the building (perhaps making it only two bays, with a third to be added later) and postponing the build-out of the living area until a later time (as the county is not yet ready to proceed with adding full-time paid firefighters to its staff).
Williams told the board that he was sure the money to complete the project as planned would be available, just not quickly enough to allow the entire project to proceed now.
In its reworking of the plans, he said the board might consider setting up the project in phases and getting the station open and operational.
“We can get a number of small grants for specific things, like the generators,” Williams said. I would like to see if we can come up with some in-kind work—having local businesses and individuals donate their time to help where they can. Bart Andrews has helped us in this way before. There are some things the county can do for itself through its staff. All this will cut costs, possibly a great deal.”
We are going to make this work
Bishop said that the bidders should be notified that, at this time, all of the bids were rejected so they would not incur debts from the bonding necessary for their initial bidding requirements, and seemed sure that the bidders would bid on the revised project soon.
“We are going to make this work,” Tallman said. “That is how we have always gotten things done in this county. We figure out what we need to do and then do it. The citizens of Providence have been waiting and needing this station for long enough. We need to make it work for them.”
