Architect: $1 million will build apparatus bay for Boyceville’s existing fire department equipment

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  — Spending $1 million on a new fire station will build an apparatus bay big enough to house the Boyceville Community Fire Department’s existing equipment, according to the architect hired by the fire board.

Dave Cihasky of Five Bugles Design spoke to the Boyceville Community Fire District Board concerning the $1 million budget for the new fire station at the fire board’s August 16 meeting.

The fire board set a budget of $1 million for a new fire station in May.

Five Bugles Design is a division of Architectural Design Group out of Eau Claire and specializes in designing fire stations and other public safety buildings.

Five Bugles and ADG were purchased by Wendel Companies in June. Wendel is described as a “nationally recognized design, construction and energy services company.”

According to a news release on the Five Bugles website, Wendel plans to “take the design expertise Five Bugles brings to all locations across the U.S. where Wendel has a presence.”

The address on the Wendel website lists the company as being based in Williamsville, New York.

Schematics

At the April fire board meeting, representatives for Five Bugles Design presented schematic designs for the new fire hall at a cost of $2.3 million and $3.08 million.

The estimated cost of a 12,245 square-foot brick and block building was $3,078,160.

The estimated cost of a 12,245 square-foot metal building was $2,292,221.

The $1 million would build a 6,700 square-foot apparatus bay for the Boyceville fire department that would not include a meeting room, offices or a hose-drying tower.

The 6,700 square-foot base building would include an area for storing turn-out gear and bays for the vehicles and fire trucks already owned by the fire department, Cihasky said, noting that the total project cost would most likely come in at something under $1 million.

For fire department meetings and training sessions, firefighters could pull the fire trucks out of the fire station and free up space that way, he said.

The cost for a meeting hall and offices would be around $125 per square foot, and the amount of square footage needed would be 2,260 square feet, Cihasky said.

Square footage of 2,260 multiplied by $125 amounts to $282,500.

U-shape

At a meeting with the fire district’s five-year planning committee, Rich Monn, representative for the Town of Stanton on the fire board and chair of the five-year committee, had presented a design for a “U-shaped” fire station that could be expanded in the future, Cihasky said.

Monn was unable to attend the August 16 fire board meeting.

After designing fire stations for 20 years, Cihasky said he had never seen a U-shaped fire station, and after considering the concept, said it would present difficulties in getting equipment in and out of the building.

In addition, a U-shaped building would have to be longer than a conventional design, and the proposed lot by the airport would not be large enough, Cihasky said.

Charles Maves, representative for the Town of Sherman, said just because a U-shaped fire station has never been built does not mean that it could not be built.

No one had ever seen a car before the first one was built, and no one has seen a U-shaped fire station because the concept has never been built, he said.

Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief, wondered about the hose-drying tower.

Maves said the hose-drying tower was “not a concern” for him because he does not think the fire department needs a hose-drying tower.

Fifth bay

One of the original concept designs for the new fire station had included a fifth apparatus bay that would be intended to house equipment purchased in the future.

Monn was concerned a fifth bay would be “harder to sell” with no new equipment to put in it, so the fifth apparatus bay was changed to a space that could be considered for future expansion, Cihasky said.

The complete base building most likely would cost between $850,000 to $950,000, he said.

The municipalities in the Boyceville fire district would pay for a new fire station based on their percentage of equalized value in the fire district.

For example, if a township has 20 percent of the total equalized value in the fire district, the township would pay 20 percent of the cost of building a new fire station.

The Boyceville Community Fire District includes the Towns of Hay River, New Haven, Stanton, Tiffany and Sherman and the Villages of Wheeler and Boyceville.

Post-frame

Cihasky said he had checked into costs for both a post-frame type of building and a pre-engineered steel building.  

“Post-frame” includes the kinds of agricultural buildings thought of as pole barns or pole sheds.

The post-frame building would be cheaper to construct the shell, but the additional cost of insulation over what it would cost to insulate a pre-engineered building would make up for the difference in the cost between a post-frame and pre-engineered building, Cihasky said.

The post-frame construction would require support posts in the middle of the apparatus bays, although the support posts would not necessarily be a negative feature because they could be used as places to mount electrical equipment, Cihasky said.

In-floor heat also would be part of the design. In-floor heat is a better way to heat the building and is better for the apparatus because the equipment is dried out quickly and thoroughly, he said.

The in-floor heat would be within the budget set by the fire board, Cihasky noted.

Maves said based on city maintenance shops that have just been built, Cihasky’s numbers “seem high.”

Chihasky said he would rather say the building is going to cost $1 million and then have it come in at $750,000 than to say the building will cost $1 million and have it come in at $1.2 million.

Estimate

After Cihasky left the meeting, Maves expressed concern about the Five Bugles estimate for building a new fire station.

Chuck Siler, representative for the Town of Tiffany, said the Tiffany Town board “was not convinced either.”

Russell Hitz, representative for the Town of Hay River, said he is in the business of bidding jobs.

The estimates are always high, and the person contracting for a construction job will not know the actual cost until contractors have bid on the project, Hitz said.

“Their job is to give an estimate, and they will estimate high,” he said.

The next step is to establish specifications for the new fire station, Hitz said.

Once the specifications are finalized, then Five Bugles will be able to obtain bids, and then the fire board will have a better idea of the cost of a new fire station, he said.

“We need to get off the turn-key idea right now. We need structural specs,” Hitz said.

The first step in working on the specifications is to determine priorities, he said.

The Boyceville Community Fire District Board meets next on September 13 in the Boyceville Village Hall immediately following the ambulance district meeting at 6:30 p.m.

The five-year planning committee will meet before the next fire board meeting and will report to the board at the September 13 meeting, Maves said.

Other business

In other business, the Boyceville Community Fire District Board:

• Learned that the Boyceville fire department now has 38 firefighters on the roster.

• Learned that after the last fire board meeting, the fire department received a donation of $170 from a church cookout in Ridgeland. Three churches (Ridgeland Lutheran, Hay River Lutheran, and Living Hope) held the cookout, and the free-will donations were split up with area fire departments, Marlette said.

• Learned there will be a county-wide drill for emergency services at the Big River Resources Ethanol Plant near Boyceville in September.

• Learned that the Boyceville fire department has gone on 43 runs so far this year.