Boyceville fire district’s 5-year planning committee narrows design of new fire station

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  —  A new fire station in Boyceville may not need to cover as many square feet as was originally planned.

The Boyceville Community Fire District’s Five-Year Capital Improvement and Planning Committee met January 27 to finalize a recommendation to the fire district board for a scaled-down version of a new fire station.

Rich Monn, representative for the Town of Stanton and chair of the five-year planning committee, said he has been thinking about ways to scale down the proposed fire station to reduce the cost.

Instead of a second story on the new fire station that would be built now in the event that the Boyceville fire department eventually needs to employ full-time firefighters, the second story could be eliminated and all of the necessary utilities, such as water lines, could be installed in the walls and capped off so that if an addition were needed to accommodate full-time firefighters, it could be quickly and easily built at some point in the future, Monn said.

In addition to the second story, the preliminary design provided by Five Bugles Design includes two extra bays that would not be needed now — one for future heavy rescue equipment and one as future apparatus bay.

If the new station only had one extra bay for future use instead of two, that would save a substantial number of square feet, Monn said.

Cost estimates for building a new fire station have been quoted as approximately $150 per square foot, so reducing square footage wherever possible would have a large impact on the cost of the project, he noted.

Monn also suggested reducing the square footage of the new fire station by bringing the hose drying tower inside of the building.

“I would like to see the hose drying tower in the design now, not as a future option,” said Mike Blechinger, representative for the Town of Tiffany.

“There’s a lot of benefit to (a hose drying tower), I think,” said Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief.

“We want to be able to say that we think we have enough (progress on a preliminary design) to be able to talk to an architect,” Monn said.

Other than “shuffling things around,” is this the preliminary design the five-year planning committee would like to present to the fire district board? Monn asked.

The answer from other committee members was “yes.”

In order to gain support from the fire district board, the member municipalities and the general public, “we have to be totally transparent about what we’re doing,” Monn said, noting that the committee and the fire district board must also consider enough options for the new fire station from a variety of angles so the general public does not have the perception that the decision to build a new fire station has been made in haste.

A design presented by Design Built Structures about a year ago included 6,660 square feet for the apparatus bay, 3,808 square feet for the administrative and meeting portion of the building and 3,808 square feet for a second story.

The initial cost estimate for the 3,808 square feet of second story was $20 per square foot from Design Built Structures — which would amount to a little over $76,000.

Removing a 20-foot wide by 90-foot long apparatus bay with a cost estimate of $150 per square foot from Design Built would amount to $270,000.

The five-year planning committee unanimously approved a motion to present the scaled down version of the proposed new fire station with a hose drying tower inside the building to the Boyceville Community Fire District board at the February 10 meeting.

The Boyceville fire district contracted with Five Bugles Design for $5,000 to obtain a preliminary design of the new fire station.

If the fire district board approves the scaled down version of the fire station, the next step would be to start the bidding process for architects and send out Requests for Proposals.

In addition to Monn and Blechinger, the five-year planning committee includes Ned Hahn (Town of Hay River); Paul Wathke (Town of Sherman); and Jill Huber (Town of New Haven).

Gilbert Kruger, representative for the Village of Boyceville, was absent from the meeting.