The fire station options
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:37 p.m., June 9, 2008
Updated 02:37 p.m., June 9, 2008
Renovate, renovate and add on, or build from scratch?
The city’s budget being in the squeezed situation that it is, what the city decides to do about Fire Station No. 2 may boil down to cost more than anything else. City commissioners made clear, during Treanor Architects’ presentation of its report on Station 2 last week, that each of the three options Treanor’s Andy Pitts presented were financially undesirable.
Until the commission’s next discussion on Station 2, it’s hard to say what the city will decide to do, but it may be a while before the Emporia Fire Department and Chief Jack Taylor see the station’s issues addressed.
Options, materials
An all-new station, whether it’s built at the public works facility at 1220 Hatcher St. or on the existing site at 1415 Industrial Road, would cost between $3.5 million and $4.375 million for construction, Treanor estimated. That cost would result in an “ideal” facility that would allow the fire department to include all of its desired programs.
Pitts said the high end of that construction estimate would feature concrete walls and structure “with a steel structure above. It could have a steel frame also, but the walls would probably still be concrete masonry, just from a durability and longevity standpoint.”
The lower end, around $3.5 million, would feature more stud framing, he said.
“We’ve done both metal stud and wood stud, and usually you’d have a pre-engineered truss for the roof, and that can be metal or wood,” he said. “And then usually the walls then are drywall, which over time can take more abuse.”
Less money would have to be put into general upkeep for the station’s appearance with the concrete masonry frame, he said. Additionally, that type of frame allows more flexibility for renovations and additions.
“So, by spending a little bit more upfront, you save more on a yearly basis on wear and tear, and you also provide flexibility,” he said. “And it just becomes a balancing act between how much you can spend now and how you can budget for the life cycle of the building.”
Treanor estimates the life span of a new station at 30 to 50 years — which is also the estimated life span of the renovation-plus-addition option. That option, which would cost around $2.26 million for construction, would add to the current station’s apparatus bay, add offices and a training classroom and renovate the station’s dayroom, kitchen and sleeping quarters. About 8,000 square feet would be added to the 10,000-square-foot facility, making it the same size as an all-new station.
Asked about the new station and the renovated-with-additions options carrying about the same life span, Pitts said, “That’s true, because you’ve got a very robust building at the existing building now, and the biggest costs, in life-cycle costs, become wear and tear and then also the mechanical systems. And typically, you’re not going to be able to extend life beyond, really, 30 years for mechanical systems. And so it’s hard to say.
“You could have a 100-year-type building, but you’re still gonna have to put money into it significantly every 30 to 50 years.”
Renovating the problem-plagued station for $361,000, in Treanor’s estimation, would implement the minimum changes to bring the station up to date. The station’s parking lot and sidewalks would be repaired, as would its roof, apparatus bay slab and living quarters slab. The station’s pre-cast panels would be re-caulked.
The city has the option of mixing elements of Treanor’s three presented options to create its own renovation package.
Liberal’s experience
Money being a factor in a city’s decision on a fire station is nothing new, of course. In fact, the prospect of hard cash is a big reason why there’s a new fire station being built in Liberal to replace one that was torn down about two years ago.
“Well, the old station was on a very strategic corner from the standpoint of the private sector’s desire for business,” said Joe Sealey, Liberal’s public works director. “And the Walgreen drug store chain offered the city a considerable sum of money to purchase that site that the old fire station was on.”
Walgreens reportedly made the same offer to Emporia in 2005 to buy Fire Station No. 2, but the city declined. The chain paid $1.5 million for the site of Liberal’s main station. Liberal, which now has just over 20,000 residents, uses two fire stations to serve the city and one at the airport. A temporary facility is being used until the new station is ready.
The new station is around 60 to 65 percent complete and will serve both the city and Seward County, with the county picking up about 20 percent of the cost. It’s costing about $1.7 million to build, including what the county is picking up.
“There’s been some change orders, and I’m not sure where we’re at on that, but that’s gonna be pretty close,” Sealey said. “That’ll have five large, extremely large, double bays, and of course the office space where the city and the county fire departments share, as well as the emergency preparedness uses also.”
Growth problems
Taylor told the city at its May 28 work session that it’s possible that if Emporia continues to grow, as the city would like to happen, a third fire station could become necessary in the future.
One community that has seen massive growth in this decade is Rockwall, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas Metroplex. Rockwall County is the smallest county in the state, but it’s growing at a nearly insane rate. The city of Rockwell now has around 31,000 people, City Manager Julie Couch said, after having 17,000 in the 2000 U.S. census.
Rockwall built a new fire station in 2002, and the city wants to build two more. But growth doesn’t always equal revenue to build what you need; Couch said the potential costs of building those new stations have “killed us.” Told an approximate range of Treanor’s cost estimate of a new station for Emporia, Couch said, “Yep, that would be about right.”
“We had a bond election several years ago, and we had used estimates based on some numbers ... that we saw on our fire station that was built in 2002,” she said. “And pricing has just gone out the roof, as you know. So we’re about a million dollars short on each one, or we were. So we’ve had to cut back and figure out how to pull all that together.”
Needs, capabilities
The city’s work session agenda for next Wednesday was scheduled to include its next discussion of Station 2. The challenge, of course, is balancing the city’s lack of revenue for such a project with the apparent fact that changes are needed for the station.
The city’s best option may be to execute the $361,000 renovation in phases, as Commissioner Jeff Longbine inquired about at the last work session. Spreading the project over three years, for example, was a method that Longbine said the city could absorb.
“That’s something we could do expense reductions somewhere else and make it work,” Longbine said at the session. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look at doing it all at one time, or we shouldn’t look at (renovation plus expansion) or whatever. But are we willing to make the sacrifices in other areas to do this?”
Taylor understands the predicament the city is in.
“I mean, it’s a fact of life,” he said. “It’s reality that the local economy is suffering right now. And there are many projects in the city, not just Fire Station 2, that we would like to see accomplished. And money is just tight.
“So, sure, we’d like to see some things done, but it’s all gonna be relative to what money is available.”
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Posted by railroadhorn (anonymous) on June 10, 2008 at 3 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Fix a few of the slabs and get it over with. Let property owners in the NW pay for a new station.
When are city managers, staff and commissioners going to realize that Emporia doesn't have the money? Half the "city" leaders (including many of the Gazette's editorial staff) live in the county, thereby avoiding having to pay high city taxes. And the other half of the city of Emporia are renters who don't pay property taxes! Go check out how many square acres aren't taxed either because of their churches, schools, ESU, etc. The Gazette should really look at the city's acreage and show how little is left to be taxed.
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