City Moves Forward On Fire Station Project

BUILDING, DESIGN FIRMS OFFER INPUT

Plans for a new fire station-community center facility in Grand Junction are moving ahead. Officials with the city of Grand Junction and the Grand Junction Fire & Rescue have been meeting with representatives of building companies, design firms, government agencies and financial institutions over the last several months.

Mayor Jerry Herrick, City Clerk Rita Jenkins, City Councilman Alan Robinson, and Mark Renslow, Fire & Rescue assistant chief, met Thursday, Jan.19, with Arnold Thomas of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to talk about available USDA grant monies and other financing options.

“As far as grants, we have a very limited amount of funds to work with,” said Thomas. “Our office got a modest amount of grant money last year, just enough to fund one grant. We don’t anticipate getting a lot of money for this year either.

“A project like yours would have scored well over the last 10 years,” said Arnold, but the last two years has seen a significant reduction in federal funds channeled through USDA to distribute via grants for community projects similar to the proposed fire station-community center in Grand Junction. “We are fighting over a small pot.”

No more than $50,000 would be available for the project here, said Arnold.

That would be a mere drop in the bucket for the “55% of total project cost” amount that had been mentioned last spring and summer by fire department officials as the project began moving forward. Since that time, meetings in the community and with area building and design officials have generated proposed plans for a facility estimated to cost a minimum of $800,000.

However, Arnold did say that funds are available in the USDA’s low-interest loan program which carries a 3¾% interest rate. Herrick said this was feasible for Grand Junction as the city currently has no bonded indebtedness. Peoples Trust and Savings Bank officials have offered assistance to the city with loan and financing options, and Herrick said he would initiate further discussion with the bank.

Arnold noted that the application process for the low-interest loan is the same for the $50,000 grant, and that one application would cover both the grant and loan.

The city and the fire department had outlined plans for a new facility in August in a community meeting. That plan proposed a new facility on the south side of Main Street in the quarter of a block bounded by Main Street to the north and 11^th Street to the west—directly across Main Street from Peoples Trust and Savings Bank and the Watts Building.

Originally, the fire department had proposed expanding the current fire station and city hall building—located on the northwest corner of the 11^th and Main intersection—to the west on Main Street and to the north, expanding toward the alley and Union Pacific railroad tracks. That would have added one new fire truck bay on the north side and space for training on the west.

As discussions continued and the city made its intentions known to clear out the buildings from 202 to 214 on the south side of Main Street, the fire department officials agreed it would be more cost effective in the long run to build a new facility that could encompass both a fire station and community center. Discussion had already been underway by the Grand Junction Horizons and several local clubs and organizations to build a separate community center, so the plans were conjoined with support of the city.

When the initial plan was modified from expansion to a new facility, the fire department and the city called a special community meeting where the revised preliminary plans were presented to get a wider perspective and feedback from the overall community. The feedback from that meeting for the project moving forward was very supportive.

Since then, the project has moved forward on several levels:
* Shaping and developing a facility that will meets the community’s needs; blend in with the current look of that block of Main Street (keying off the architecture of the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank building); and be affordable for a community of this size.
* Proceeding on the city’s efforts to demolish all six of the buildings. Four are privately owned and two comprise the current Community Center, which the city owns.
* Meeting with builders and design officials to determine the actual costs of a facility for the proposed space and to review projects by these firms in similar size communities.

Fire and Rescue Chief Terry Hoefle, Renslow, Herrick and other city officials outlined a fire station-community center in building at the August meeting that would incorporate existing infrastructure from Hamilton Redi-Mix in Jefferson, which builds large metal facilities as part of its business operations.

Three fire truck and two smaller bays would be built on the south side of the building facing the east-way alley with enough frontage to the alleyway to maneuver trucks into the alley and then onto 11^th Street. Also included were two bays on the 11^th Street side of the building—one for a small truck and one rescue vehicle. The front of the facility would look to blend in with the “streetfront” look of a typical main street with display windows and street-level entryway into a community center.

The facility would also include a combination small meeting room and storm shelter, a 60 foot by 60 foot community center with capacity for 200 people facing Main Street, a kitchen to serve both the community center and a combination small meeting room-storm shelter, restrooms, and storage space for the rescue squad and firefighters’ equipment.

Kim Rueter, local businessman, was at that meeting in August and offered the services of an architect to create schematic drawings to show to the community and to various granting agencies as the project moved forward. At the time, use of the existing steel infrastructure from Hamilton’s, along with work from local tradesman and volunteer efforts to finish the building, the estimated cost was around $200,000.

Rueter then called a meeting of local officials representing the city, fire department, Grand Junction Horizons and local business persons and presented schematic drawings of a “from scratch” fire station designed to complement the open green space on Main Street and the open lot just east across the alley from the proposed site (former Oblinger’s men’s clothing store building).

He indicated from his discussions with the architect that for a project of this level, it is best to “build new rather than retrofit an existing facility.” The new building Rueter proposed was similar to the intent of the fire department, but featured an opening bay and door facing Main Street that Rueter said was “big enough to handle a combine.” It also had considerable more architectural detailing that originally proposed by the fire department. Estimated cost was $1.3 million.

Reaction was mixed, with residents appreciative of Rueter’s support for the project, but there were questions and concerns about a high bay access on Main Street and why it would need to handle a combine.

That meeting did open the door to serious discussions about building an all-new facility but with a smaller price tag. It was agreed that building a new facility on the proposed space on the south side of Main Street was the most feasible.

While those discussions moved forward, the city committed itself to tearing down the six buildings in the proposed space between 11^th Street and the alley. Rueter owns the building on the corner, 202 East Main, which is still known locally as “Dr. Wetrich’s building,” as it was his medical office for many years and most recently housed the accounting business of Janice Gilley. The next building, 204, was mostly destroyed by a fire in the late 1960s, just prior to the Grand Junction Centennial in 1969. A false front was put in place on the street side and there was some construction on the backside in later years, but the overall state of the building has been in disrepair for some time.

The third building from the corner, 206, is the former pool hall and is falling in upon itself with much rotting along the wood trim in the front. From the rear, this building and 204 are both clearly in a state of serious decay. The current owner is Keith Light of Perry.

The fourth building, 208-210, is a longtime Main Street fixture as a barber and beauty salon. The building is owned by Duane and Donna Delp, who owns and operates the Hair Junction salon in west side of the building with the east side vacant. The east side was a barbershop operated for many years by R.M. “Jiggs” Smith.

The fifth and sixth buildings comprise the current day Community Center, which is a combined space created out of two existing storefront buildings. The center is beset by many problems, including mold and inadequate heating and cooling.

The city committed itself to removing all six of the buildings and order the buildings be inspected by a third-party inspector provided by the city of Jefferson. Those inspections were made. It was determined that all the buildings suffered from structural deficiencies and were not fit for use. The next step was determining how to remove the buildings and the various challenges created with a demolition project of this scale.

The city has received support from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in assessing the asbestos levels in the buildings—all but built between 1886 and 1900 with the exception of part of the Community Center buildings, 212 and 214 Main Street, which was built in 1950.

The city is looking at asbestos removal costs and procedures and how to transport the debris from the asbestos removal and the actual demolition of the buildings. Two businesses in Grand Junction—Rueters Red Power and Neese Inc.—have offered to transport the debris to the designated landfill, which is either Boone County Landfill or Dallas County Landfill.

Herrick and Jenkins have also met with officials with Iowa Central Community College of Fort Dodge. Ken Paxton, director of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce and Development, had informed the city council in the fall that ICCC offers a deconstruction class and urged them to contact ICCC officials and determine their interest in taking down all six Main Street buildings.

Those meeting have been held and ICCC is moving forward, having lined up as many as a dozen qualified students to sign up for the class, which is projected during the late winter-early spring months. The city is required to provide $10,000 for the tuition for the students, but all of the participants are local and they will be trained and certified in demolition of these types of buildings, which is a critical situation in small communities throughout rural Iowa.

While the deconstruction discussions with ICCC have been moving forward, city and fire department officials have met with two building firms, a design company, and the chief executive officer of Peoples Trust and Savings Bank.

Herrick, Renslow and Robinson met with Mike Segner, CEO, Peoples Trust and Savings Bank, Clive, to discuss the plans for the demolition and new fire station-community center facility and to encourage the bank to proceed for plans for further demolition involving the properties its own on the east side of the same block between the alley and 12^th Street, the former Junction Inn restaurant buildings.

All three pointed out to Segner the value of the “Peoples Trust and Savings Bank” brand and how that brand—yet alone the value of the local bank—was conceived, nurtured and developed by the citizens and farmers of the Grand Junction area since the bank was founded here in 1917.

Segner acknowledged the significant heritage of the bank in Grand Junction and what it means to the current eight-bank chain. He was very encouraging of the efforts of city and fire department officials. Segner pledged financial support from the bank for community fundraising and offered assistance with low-interest loan information and available services from the bank.

At the December council meeting, City Councilwoman Pat Fagen had urged fire department officials to get specific costs and design schematics from companies like Morton Buildings, based on the information presented and discussed at the earlier community-wide meetings looking at the initial proposed facility and then the more elaborate versions presented by Rueter. “We need something we can put in front of the community and say, ‘this is what we have proposed to build and this is how much it is going to cost,’” said Fagen.

Hoefle, Renslow, Robinson and Pierre Kellogg, a member of both the fire department and city council, along with Tina Kafer and Derek Kennedy from the Grand Junction branch of Peoples Trust and Savings Bank, met month with Bill Fisher, manager of the Morton Buildings office in Jefferson, to review possible building styles, formats, and design-construction costs for the proposed facility.

Fisher presented information about similar facilities that Morton Buildings has constructed in Apple River, Ill., and Milton, Pa. Based on the size of the facility needed here with the space for the fire station and a community center, he said the cost would be approximately $100 per square foot. Based on some of the rough schematics put together by Renslow and the overall space of the six lots—132 feet by 132 feet—Fisher looked at configurations of both 132 feet x 100 feet and 120 feet x 100 feet, which would cost $1.3 and $1.2 million, respectively.

Hoefle brought up the option of using local contractors and some volunteer labor to offset the total cost of the facility.

City and fire officials then met on Jan. 9 with Keith Stork of Jensen Builders, Fort Dodge, which has built several smaller fire station facilities in small rural Iowa communities. Stork also recommended initiate discussions with Snyder & Associates, Atlantic, which designed many of the facilities constructed by Jensen.

Jensen built the new fire station in Glidden, a 9,285-square-foot structure that included a kitchen but not a community center, at a cost of $800,000. Grand Junction would need a similar size facility for its fire and rescue needs, as the department covers all of the city of Grand Junction, plus Junction Township which is the largest township in the county and includes Dana, plus space for a community center to handle a maximum of 200 people, approximately 360 square feet.

Stork and local officials also discussed other new fire stations that have been built in the area and their costs. A new fire station in Lohrville includes a 60 foot by 28 foot meeting room as part of its overall 7,200 square feet. Pilot Mound’s facility includes a meeting room with a kitchen.

Tim Teig of Snyder & Associates visited with city and fire department officials on Jan. 12. He outlined a number of fire station projects his firm designed, including a new facility designed for Lewis, Iowa, which is just south of Atlantic in western Cass County. The Lewis fire station is 6,600 square feet with 5 bays, kitchen and meeting room.

“We also added restrooms and a utility room, but there is no brick on the front,” said Teig. Cost the facility was “a hair over $300,000.”

A 5,000-square-foot facility in Indiana Township in Marion County, south of Knoxville, was also in the $300,000 range. That facility has 3 bays and a 37 foot by 50 foot meeting room (1,850 square feet).

Elk Horn is planning a 6,400-square-foot fire station that includes some masonry work, but it has not yet been bid out. Teig expects the costs to be between $400,000 and $450,000.