The City of Elk River is preparing to replace its oldest fire station located at 415 Jackson Avenue. The fire station was first built in 1971. It has been remodeled three times and had a couple of additions, according to Elk River Fire Chief Mark Dickinson. It’s in an ideal location at the center of town, and offers seven bays but not in a drive through format that has become the standard in the fire service profession. “It’s beyond updates at this point,” Dickinson told the Star News this week. “The building is failing. It’s not just the exterior, and it’s not just a matter of putting some makeup on it to make it look a little better.” Among the building’s most pressing needs are a new roof, a new HVAC system and things like plumbing and electrical problems that are located underground that the city has little or no access to. “If it fails, the building is going to be out of service,” he said. “We’re at a point where we’re trying to get ahead of that.” The Elk River City Council on Oct. 7 authorized city staff to move forward with CNH Architects for professional architectural design services and construction support for the planning and replacement of Fire Station No. 1 at a cost of $982,860. The council had already approved the fire department’s request to go out for proposals, and 11 firms responded. Two that had missing information in their proposal and were ruled out quickly. The remaining nine were narrowed to four by the initial Project Management Team Elk River Fire Chief Mark Dickinson, City Administrator Cal Portner, Building Official Mark Pistulka, Buildings Maintenance Supervisor Gary Lore, Elk River Fire Marshal Jeff Smith and Assistant Fire Chief Joe Libor, Jr. Libor. The group brought the top four firms in to give presentations. All of them had experience in designing public safety facilities on their resume, and two of the firms were among the higher-priced bidders, and two were among the lower-priced bidders. Four of the six committee members ranked CNH as their top choice, and the other two had them as their second. Porter said it has been the city’s practice to use funds for building processes such as this from the building reserve fund. CNH will be asked to design the new fire station and do an assessment of the current site and other potential sites, Dickinson said. Elk River Mayor John Dietz pulled the item for the consent agenda on Oct. 7 to ask some questions, including one about timeline. “If we do this and we don’t build the station for a couple years, would this document still be (good),” he asked. “It’s not going to change over time. Will it be designed exactly the way we want it, whether it’s 12 months for 24 months. Dickinson said and noted that the contract references a 36-month window. “(If it goes on longer than that) then we would have to take a look at that contract with the architect,” Dickinson said. “This (contract) includes everything from the beginning to the end of the project.” Dietz asked whether anything had been decided about location, and Dickinson said it had not been. The RFP calls for the selected firm to assist the city with that decision, as city staff don’t have that expertise to decide where it would fit best and where it could meet all of our needs. Dickinson did tell the Star News the current location is about as close to ideal as you can get, but it may not work. “We take a few things into consideration, one of them being people being able to get to the station, and then being able to get to the majority of that town and where the majority of our call volume comes from when we’ve run (reports). The majority of our emergencies are in the center of our town station. We need station one centrally located.”
The City of Elk River is preparing to replace its oldest fire station located at 415 Jackson Avenue.
The fire station was first built in 1971. It has been remodeled three times and had a couple of additions, according to Elk River Fire Chief Mark Dickinson. It’s in an ideal location at the center of town, and offers seven bays but not in a drive-through format that has become the standard in the fire service profession.
“It’s beyond updates at this point,” Dickinson told the Star News this week. “The building is failing. It’s not just the exterior, and it’s not just a matter of putting some makeup on it to make it look a little better.”
Among the building’s most pressing needs are a new roof, a new HVAC system and things like plumbing and electrical problems that are located underground that the city has little or no access to.
“If it fails, the building is going to be out of service,” he said. “We’re at a point where we’re trying to get ahead of that.”
The Elk River City Council on Oct. 7 authorized city staff to move forward with CNH Architects for professional architectural design services and construction support for the planning and replacement of Fire Station No. 1 at a cost of $982,860. The council had already approved the fire department’s request to go out for proposals, and 11 firms responded.
Two that had missing information in their proposal and were ruled out quickly. The remaining nine were narrowed to four by the initial Project Management Team made up of Chief Dickinson, City Administrator Cal Portner, Building Official Mark Pistulka, Buildings Maintenance Supervisor Gary Lore, Elk River Fire Marshal Jeff Smith and Assistant Fire Chief Joe Libor, Jr.
The group brought the top four firms in to give presentations. All of them had experience in designing public safety facilities on their resume, and two of the firms were among the higher-priced bidders, and two were among the lower-priced bidders. Here’s a look at the firms that were considered.
CNH Architects...............................$972,160
Four of the six committee members ranked CNH as their top choice, and the other two had them as their second. Portner said it has been the city’s practice to use funds for building processes such as this from the building reserve fund.
CNH will be asked to design the new fire station and do an assessment of the current site and other potential sites, Dickinson said.
Elk River Mayor John Dietz pulled the item from the consent agenda on Oct. 7 to ask some questions, including one about timeline.
“If we do this and we don’t build the station for a couple years, would this document still be (good),” he asked. “It’s not going to change over time. Will it be designed exactly the way we want it, whether it’s 12 months or 24 months?”
Dickinson noted that the contract references a 36-month window.
“(If it goes on longer than that) then we would have to take a look at that contract with the architect,” Dickinson said. “This (contract) includes everything from the beginning to the end of the project.”
Dietz asked whether anything had been decided about location, and Dickinson said it had not been. The RFP calls for the selected firm to assist the city with that decision, as city staff don’t have that expertise to decide where it would fit best and where it could meet all of the needs.
Dickinson did tell the Star News the current location is about as close to ideal as you can get, but it may not work.
“We take a few things into consideration, one of them being people being able to get to the station, and then being able to get to the majority of that town and where the majority of our call volume comes from when we’ve run (reports). The majority of our emergencies are in the center of our town station. We need Station 1 centrally located.”
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