With projected costs topping $6 million, Medina looks to scale back fire hall project

Barton & Loguidice’s rendering of the fire hall shows an addition and existing building that blend in with a brick design. A final look and scope of the project hasn’t been determined.

MEDINA – Village officials are wrestling with sticker shock for the cost of a new addition to the fire hall and upgrades to the existing fire station.

The Village Board was expecting the project to be around $4.5 million. That was the estimate about a year ago from Barton & Loguidice, an engineering firm. The company’s latest projections put the tally at just over $6.1 million.

“We’re very concerned about the price tag for this building,” Mayor Mike Sidari told Tim Bivens, vice president with Barton & Loguidice during a board meeting on Wednesday. Village officials met with Bivens in a phone conference.

Bivens said the project could be scaled back, perhaps by eliminating $1.1 million in work on the existing fire hall, and reducing the scope of the project on the new addition. Contingencies also represent about 30 percent of the cost.

Village Trustee Marguerite Sherman said the project needs to be downsized due to the expense.

“Our village can’t afford what is being presented here,” she said.

The addition is needed as the village prepares for a new ladder truck that is too big for the current fire hall. The new truck is expected to be delivered in about two years.

The board on June 26 accepted the bid for $1,698,995 from Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisc. to build the new fire truck with a 100-foot-long ladder. The truck will replace a 28-year-old ladder truck with a 75-foot ladder.

The truck is taller than the current one and won’t fit in the bay at the fire station. The current ladder truck has a clearance of 10 feet, 4 inches but the space in the garage is 10 feet, 6 inches.

The new ladder trucks will have a clearance of 13 feet. The design for the new hall addition would have two bays that allow up to 14 feet. The taller truck is the typical size for a ladder truck. Doing a smaller size is a special order, said Fire Chief Matt Jackson.

The fire chief said he supports trying to scale back the building project.

“I’m a taxpayer as well,” he said. “I understand it. Whatever we can do to get the cost down.”

Chief Matt Jackson during a March open house showed how the current concrete floors in the 1930s fire hall are uneven and sinking. The new fire hall addition and repair project calls for taking out the old concrete floors and putting down new concrete.

The village has sought grants and state and federal assistance for the project but so far has no outside funding to help offset the costs on village taxpayers. Bivens said there is federal money for infrastructure projects with roads and bridges, and water and sewer projects, but nothing to help with fire and police station upgrades.

He suggested the Village Board determine what it can spend on the project, and Barton & Loguidice can make a design that fits the budget.

The board wants a little more time to consider how to proceed. Medina has started the process to take out a bond for up to $5.6 million to pay for the project, but Mayor Sidari and the trustees said they don’t want to incur that much debt for the project. The board will ask its bond counsel to present the annual debt payments for a project at $3 million, $3.5 million and $4 million.

The board was told by the bond counsel that the annual payments for the $1.7 million bond for the ladder truck would be $159,000 over 20 years putting that expense at close to $3.2 million with a 6.5 percent annual financing cost.

The addition to the fire hall that would be approximately 62 feet, 8 inches by 88 feet, 8 inches. The plan is to move the ladder truck and an engine to the addition, and then allow four ambulances to go in the current fire hall. The spots used by the ambulances could be made available to the police department for patrol cars or it could become a meeting space.

The total scope of the project includes:

• A new public entry, radio room/office, laundry room, EMS room, restrooms, Decon room, gear room, mechanical room, tool room, and apparatus bay with the existing apparatus bay being repurposed to house the village ambulances.
• A mezzanine space to be located along the perimeter of the new apparatus bay with file storage and office space accessed from the existing building second floor hallway.
• A new air and vapor barrier membrane and new exterior cladding system to be installed over the existing concrete masonry unit wall construction of the existing fire station, and the existing overhead sectional doors to be relocated and replaced allowing for adequate clearances around the ambulance apparatus bay.
• The renewal of the building’s existing façade will result in creating a weather tight envelope while simultaneously allowing the cladding system of the addition to carry over creating a cohesive look to the updated facility.
• The existing concrete slab in the existing ambulance apparatus bay to be replaced, including the installation of new trench drainage and epoxy floor finish.
• The outdated emergency generator located south of the alley to be replaced and upgraded to accommodate the fire station and addition.

Sherman said the village needs to determine “needs versus wants” with the project. Bivens said the village could bid out the project with some alternates, and could pick some of those depending on the bids submitted by contractors.

John Parada was among several local residents who urged the board at the meeting to try to bring the cost down significantly with the project.

“Our taxes are so high,” he said. “We’ll be stuck paying the bill.”

The current village budget for 2023-24 raised the village taxes by 14.9 percent with the tax rate going from $18.85 to $21.15 per $1,000 of assessed property.