Boyceville fire district still waiting for proposals on $1 million fire station

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE   — After setting a budget of $1 million, members of the Boyceville Community Fire District are still waiting on proposals for a new fire station.

Unfortunately, the proposals for which they are waiting may not be what members of the fire district had in mind.

The schematic design sent out to contractors by Five Bugles Design is not what the fire district proposed, said Rich Monn, chair of the Boyceville Community Fire District’s five-year-planning committee, at the fire district board’s July 12 meeting.

In fact, the schematic design sent out by Five Bugles was an old design from quite some time ago.

For example, the schematic included a hose drying tower on the outside of the building, but fire board members have since determined the tower should be inside of the building.

In addition, the schematic design shows the training room/meeting room and administrative offices as an “alternate” instead of an essential portion of the building that fire board members have said they wanted to be part of a new fire station.

In the past, Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief, has gone on record saying a training room and meeting room is desirable in a new fire station because it would provide a space for training Boyceville firefighters as well as room for joint training sessions with neighboring fire departments.

Monn told the other fire board members he had called Five Bugles to find out about the status of the project and learned requests for proposals had been sent out to contractors but that Five Bugles had not yet received any replies.

What was sent out to the builders was “not exactly” what the fire board had asked Five Bugles to build, Monn said.

The fire board wants to know what can be built for $1 million, he said.

If information were to come back stating what the fire board wants in a new fire station would cost, say, $1.2 million, then the fire board would have to take that under consideration, Monn said.

Chuck Maves, representative for the Town of Sherman, said he found it disheartening Five Bugles had sent out an old proposal.

Monn said when the contractors had provided information to Five Bugles, he would schedule another five-year planning committee meeting.

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 schematic design recently sent out to contractors by Five Bugles lists an apparatus bay of 6,700 square feet. The hose drying tower, at 310 square feet, is listed as an alternate, and the meeting room and offices listed as an alternate are 2,260 square feet. Future apparatus bays are listed as 3,335 square feet, and a future dormitory is listed at 990 square feet.

Based on a recommendation from the five-year planning committee, the Boyceville Community Fire District Board set a budget of $1 million for the new fire station at the May meeting.

Ambulance district

During the Boyceville Community Ambulance District meeting prior to the fire board meeting, Matt Feeney, director of the ambulance service, reported a race car had side-swiped the ambulance and an EMT one evening at the Red Cedar Speedway.

The Boyceville ambulance service provides a standby rig on race nights.

The EMT was not injured. Law enforcement was called to report the incident, Feeney said.

The Menomonie Police Department was notified of the incident, and while no crash report was written and no citations were issued, MPD did document the incident, he said.

The driver of the race car was on his way out to the track and did not stop after side-swiping the ambulance, Feeney noted.

Several ambulance district board members wondered if the race car driver suffered any repercussions for the incident, and Feeney said the driver had been called off the track and was not allowed to race that night.

Feeney also reported the Boyceville ambulance service may qualify for a grant that would pay for all or part of the new ambulance.

In addition, Feeney reported Jack Ganzemiller, who had been a volunteer firefighter in Menomonie for more than 30 years and had founded the Dunn County first responders, had passed away, and the Boyceville ambulance service would be sending a vehicle to be part of a funeral procession made up of emergency response vehicles.

The Boyceville ambulance district meets next on August 16 at 6:30 p.m., and the Boyceville fire district will meet on August 16 immediately following the ambulance district.