Boyceville Ambulance considers brand new building

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE — Instead of remodeling the former Chevrolet building on Race Street, the Boyceville Community Ambulance Service is now pursuing the possibility of constructing a new building.

It has been more than a year since the Boyceville Village Board took the lead on securing a $248,000 state trust fund loan for the ambulance district to remodel the Chevrolet building, but the work is no closer to being completed, and it now appears that remodeling with the money available cannot be accomplished, said Matt Feeney, ambulance service director, at a meeting of the Boyceville Ambulance District Board May 14.

The project manager for the remodel left abruptly last year, and his departure brought the project to a standstill, Feeney said.

Over the past couple of weeks, Feeney said he has been gathering information about the possibility of demolishing the Chevrolet building and constructing a post-frame building for the ambulance service on the same site.

Northland Buildings out of Eau Claire can provide a 45-foot by 85-foot post-frame building with 16-foot sidewalls, three garage doors and two exit doors for $92,000, he said.

Another company would have to pour the concrete floor, and the entire shell for the building could be completed for $110,000, Feeney told the ambulance district board.

“It would be a new building from the ground up,” he said.

Halverson Brothers out of Menomonie has the contract for the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) at $85,000, but the cost for the new building would be less because there are fewer square feet, requiring less material for plumbing, and because the building would use in-floor heat, Feeney said.

The interior walls would be built by volunteers, and the electrical work would still be donated, he said.

Two days before the Boyceville ambulance district meeting, the Boyceville EMTs voted unanimously to go with a new building and to keep the cost within the amount of money available, Feeney said.

The downside is that the ambulance district will not be able to use the plan from Architectural Design Group (ADG) that has already been paid for and all of the volunteer work to clear out the inside of the Chevrolet building, he said.

Feeney said he would have more concrete numbers for the project by the middle of the following week.

Rich Monn, chair of the Town of Stanton and acting as chair of the ambulance district board in the absence of Gilbert Krueger, village president, suggested that it would be best to approach the Boyceville Village Board to see what they wanted to do.

Jo Palmer, village trustee, wondered why the ambulance service could not be part of the new fire station.

Ambulance services and fire departments operate differently, with a higher call volume for the ambulance service, which means the doors would be open more for the ambulance service than they would be for the fire department, Feeney said.

When the doors are open more, there is a loss of heat in the winter, and it would cost that much more to heat the fire station, he said.

Essentially, when ambulance services and fire departments are put into the same building, it ends up being two separate buildings connected by a common wall, Feeney said.

The fire district most likely will not be building a fire station for another three or four years anyway, Monn said.

“I always had a feeling that we were making a mistake on the Race Street building,” said Ned Hahn, supervisor on the Hay River Town Board and the Hay River representative on the ambulance district board.

Representatives for the ambulance district agreed that the next step should involve asking the Boyceville Village Board to hold a special meeting so that the ambulance service can present the proposal to construct a new building.

“I don’t see any other option. We’ve had so many frustrating setbacks,” Monn said.

Representatives on the Boyceville Ambulance District Board voted unanimously to ask the village board to hold a special meeting.

The Boyceville Ambulance District Board meets next on June 11 at 7 p.m. at the Boyceville Village Hall.