Remodeling no longer an option for Boyceville Fire Department

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE — Remodeling the Boyceville fire station is no longer an option.

The Village of Boyceville has chosen not to vacate the fire station, and Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief, has checked out available buildings in Boyceville and none of them are suitable for a fire station, said Rich Monn, chair of the Boyceville Fire District’s five-year planning committee at a meeting held April 22.

 The five-year planning committee met with representatives of Cedar Corporation and the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to obtain information about what the first steps might be for building a new fire station.

The factors that will influence the size and location of a new fire station include the existing number of vehicles and room for future expansion, Monn said.

“We want to build a building that is not obsolete by the time (construction) is done,” he said.

At this point, the Boyceville Fire District does not need the design for a new fire station but instead must find out what needs to be accomplished to get to the point of needing a building design, he said.

“We want to build the right building with expandability,” Monn said.

One of the first steps is to assess the existing equipment, the fire district’s service area and the number of firefighters, said Corey Scheidler of Cedar Corporation.

Another first step is to decide on a budget and how much the district would want to spend for building a new fire station, he said.

“Where is your pain threshold for your budget?” Scheidler asked.

“That’s what we don’t know … we don’t have any idea of what we need,” Monn said.

What is known is “we have a fire barn now with no space between the vehicles,” he said.

Scheidler said that in the time he has been with Cedar Corporation, the company has designed between ten and 15 new fire stations or buildings to house emergency vehicles.

The process of building a new fire station involves a preliminary design, then a budget and then developing construction documents and letting the project out for bids, he said.

The preliminary design will depend upon the lot and how the fire station would be situated on the lot, Scheidler said.

“We work to balance a good building with a service life upwards of 50 years,” Scheidler said.

Grants

Monn wondered if Cedar Corporation has someone on staff to write grant applications.

Cedar Corporation has several people who work with grant applications, including Wendy Sander, who has been with the company for 25 years, Scheidler said.

If no grants are available, the fire district could also consider a 40-year loan, said Erik Evenson of Cedar Corporation.

The fire district can work with financial planners, too, who can discuss the structure of the loan and include information about payments at various interest rates for varying lengths of time, Scheidler said.

“We want to explore all of the options so the public does not come back and say we didn’t look at enough options. We need to find out the cost and the timeframe,” Monn said.

The fire district would not be building a new fire station for at a least a couple of years, and the planning committee wants to know the cost of the building without the purchase of a site or site preparation, Monn said.

The cost could be estimated by making certain assumptions, Scheidler said.

“It’s a process … we want to work with you on this project,” he said.

Scheidler noted that firefighter assistance grants to purchase equipment might also be helpful because instead of spending the money on the equipment, the fire district can put that money toward a fire station.

Monn said that the five-year planning committee would need a cost for the design phase along with a timeframe to present to the fire district board for approval.

Cedar Corporation generally charges between 7 percent and 12 percent of the project cost, Scheidler said.

On a $1 million fire station, the design cost would be between $70,000 and $120,000, he said.

Scheidler pointed out that construction costs generally do not decrease from year to year, and building sooner rather than waiting a few years would also save the district money.

Members of the five-year planning committee said they would like to have a cost estimate to present to the Boyceville Fire District Board at the next meeting on May 14.

WCWRPC

Chris Straight of the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission said WCWRPC could help the fire district with assessing equipment and space needs.

WCWRPC also has information available about median income in the area and other demographic information that could be useful for grant applications, he said.

Boyceville currently has a median household income of $40,000, Straight said.

The United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development has some grants available for small communities, but the requirement is that less than 60 percent of the households must be below the median income for Wisconsin of $33,800, he said.

“If you can get a loan from a bank, they will not give you a grant,” Straight said.

“The more information we can get, the better,” Monn said.

Colfax is similar to Boyceville in size of the community and the fire district, Straight noted.

The new fire station in Colfax cost $750,000 when it was built in 2012.

The five-year planning committee tentatively scheduled another meeting for May 5 to discuss information that could be presented to the fire district board May 14.