News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Fire Chief Tay Robertson announced four competitors for the contract to build a new Sisters Fire Hall last Thursday in a public bid opening.
Woodburn Construction Co. bid $3,439,850 on the project, with a 300-day construction schedule. Colamette Construction of Sherwood, Oregon offered a $3,453,877 bid on a 365-day schedule. Kirby Nagelhout Construction of Bend bid $3,565,000 on 365 days, and Todd Hess General Contractors of Portland bid $3,556,291 on a 300-day schedule.
The district's board of directors was to discuss the bids on Tuesday night, June 19. According to Robertson, it is unlikely that the board will award the bid at that meeting. An award could come a week later.
The project will be funded in part by $2.5 million in bonds approved by voters last November.
"The balance comes from the building reserve fund," Robertson told The Nugget. "We've made a lot of effort to keep that fund healthy."
The project will tap that fund to the maximum, Robertson acknowledged.
"While these bids are high, first of all, that's what the project costs," the chief said. "They were all within $100,000 of each other."
Robertson said the district has a list of construction alternates that can be eliminated to reduce costs, though he doesn't want to pull too much from the project, because it would be hard to add them back in later.
"There's no fluff in this project, but there's things you need to have and things that are nice to have," he said.
The fire district plans to expand the existing fire hall to cover the entire city block, including what is now the city recycling center. The expansion will create new bays for equipment and new sleeping quarters for an expected expansion of the paid emergency personnel staff.
The expansion is driven by growth in Sisters. According to fire district officials, calls for service have increased by 60 percent over the past decade. The majority of those calls are medical emergencies, a statistic that will increase with an increasingly aging population. The district has also responded to a large number of structure fires over the past two years and provided structural protection during forest fire evacuations of Crossroads and Tollgate this summer.
Once a bid is awarded, construction can begin almost immediately. The site has already been cleared - through volunteer efforts.
All told, the volunteer demolition saved the district in excess of $20,000 - and with the district pinching every dollar to meet high construction costs, the savings will show up in the building.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)