Isle of Wight County supervisors, on Aug. 15, voted unanimously to award a construction contract to Norfolk-based Spacemakers Inc. for an expansion of the Rushmere Volunteer Fire Department.
The company was the lowest of four bidders, at $1.59 million, for a planned 1,116-square-foot addition that will house bunk rooms and men’s and women’s showers, and two vehicle bays totaling 2,866 square feet, one of which will house an Isle of Wight County Volunteer Rescue Squad ambulance.
It’s the latest milestone in the department’s expansion into emergency medical services. The ambulance, known as Medic 30, went into service at the circa-1990 Rushmere station off Old Stage Highway for the first time in early January.
“You’re staging a rescue there now; you have a unit there now and I think they’re only serving days because they don’t have the facility to stay overnight,” said Isle of Wight Public Works Director Tony Wilson.
Rescue Squad Chief Brian Carroll said in January that the ambulance at that time was scheduled to be staffed 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. by career emergency medical technicians employed by Isle of Wight County Fire and Rescue.
Rushmere, an unincorporated community at the northernmost tip of the Isle of Wight-Surry county border, is home to just over 1,100 residents. Its fire and EMS service district spans north from the intersection of Wrenns Mill Road and Old Stage Highway to where Lawnes Creek meets the James River, and as of January accounted for roughly 180 or 6% of the Rescue Squad’s 2,600 to 2,800 annual calls, Carroll said.
Wilson said Spacemaker’s bid is below the $1.7 million an architect had previously estimated.
“I was kind of surprised,” he said.
But despite the lower-than-expected cost, Isle of Wight will need to come up with just under $1 million beyond what’s currently budgeted.
According to County Administrator Randy Keaton, $839,000 is currently included for the project in Isle of Wight’s 2024-25 budget. The $989,916 remainder includes $829,916 in construction and administrative costs and a 10% or $160,000 contingency budget.
Keaton is proposing to fund the bulk of the cost by reallocating roughly $900,000 in funding budgeted for a similar expansion at the Carrollton VFD. Carrollton’s expansion plans are still in the design phase, so construction is “still a ways off,” Keaton said.
Combining the Carrollton and Rushmere funding would leave a gap of only $130,000, which he said could potentially be funded if and when the county borrows money for the Carrollton VFD, a new Windsor branch for the Blackwater Regional Library, and other projects.
“We’ve got enough money to start the project; we would just need to come back with a budget amendment to cover contingency,” Keaton said.
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