Boyceville fire district board still interviewing architects for new fire station

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  —  The Boyceville Fire District Board still has not made a decision about selecting an architect for designing a new fire station.

The Boyceville Fire District Board met with representatives for Five Bugles Design during a closed session December 7 to ask questions about the services Five Bugles said it would provide in the Request For Proposals (RFP).

From the meeting notice, it was not clear why the members of the fire district board asked for clarification about services provided by Five Bugles Design during a closed session.

According to the Wisconsin attorney general’s compliance guide to the Open Meetings law, “On the facts as presented in Citizens for Responsible Development, the Court thus found that a desire or request for confidentiality by a private developer engaged in negotiations with a city was not sufficient to justify a closed session for competitive or bargaining reasons.”

The compliance guide goes on to say, “When a governmental body seeks to convene in closed session under Wis. Stat. 19.85 (1)(3), the burden is on the body to show that competitive or bargaining interests require closure. An announcement of a contemplated closed session under Wis. Stat. 19.85 (1)(e) that provides only a conclusory assertion that the subject of the session will involve competitive or bargaining issues is inadequate because it does not reflect how the proposed discussion would implicate the competitive or bargaining interests of the body or the body’s basis for concluding that the subject falls within the exemption [for a closed session].”

The Boyceville fire board agreed at the November 16 meeting to invite Cedar Corporation and Five Bugles Design to make presentations at the December 7 meeting.

The five-year planning committee met with four architectural firms during a closed session November 2.

Although the bid amounts had already been published in the Tribune Press Reporter prior to the closed session on November 2, Rich Monn, representative for the Town of Stanton and chair of the five-year planning committee, told fire board members at the November 16 meeting that the RFPs had been presented in closed session at the request of two of the architectural firms.

Ratsch Engineering submitted a bid amount of $84,000 for designing a new fire station.

Five Bugles Design submitted a bid amount of $101,500.

Short Elliott Hendrickson submitted a bid amount of $174,000.

Cedar Corporation submitted a bid amount of $119,750.

The five-year planning committee eliminated Ratsch Engineering from consideration because “we did not think Ratsch had a good presentation,” Monn told the other board members at the November meeting.

SEH was eliminated from consideration because the bid amount on the RFP was about $50,000 more than the next lowest bid.

The Boyceville fire board is expected to meet with Cedar Corporation January 4.

A possible decision on selecting an architect to design the new fire station could take place at the January 11 meeting.

The RFPs are based on building a 13,000 square-foot fire station.

Estimates for building a new fire station have ranged from $1 million to nearly $3 million.