May 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
Another delay in the construction of a new fire hall in the Four Seasons Community.
The county commission has again decided to re-bid the project after offers in the first two rounds of bidding came in too high. But this time, the county may alter the bid specifications and change engineers.
“I think they deserve a fire hall and we’ve told them (community) we’d like to build a fire hall there but I think it’s costly. I think we need to re-draw it, re-think it, and re-bid it. My suggestion is for us to take a look at the drawings and specs again and maybe have it re-drawn. I’ll get with (County Fire Chief) Donny (Green) to see if there is anything that can be cut out and we’ll re-bid it. I want to do a fire hall but I want to take care of our money too,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling during Tuesday night’s County Commission meeting.
Last week three companies submitted bids to build a new fire hall in the Four Seasons Community but they were all much higher than the best bid the county received during the first round of bidding on the project in March.
The latest bids were opened for the fire hall Thursday morning, May 24. Triton Construction of Rockvale had the lowest base bid at $257,000 with two deductive alternates totaling $19,200 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls). Quality Builders of Sparta submitted a base bid of $278,060 with no deductive alternates and Preston Brothers of Woodbury offered a base bid of $285,300 with two deductive alternates totaling $27,690 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls).
During the first round on March 29 two bids were received including one for $284,000 from Preston Brothers of Woodbury (minus $11,000 if the county put the gravel on the parking lot) and $197,000 from FTM Contracting of Cookeville (deductive alternate of $2,400).
The county commission, during its regular monthly meeting on April 23, voted to re-bid the project because the first bids received were too high.
County Mayor Stribling said two local builders had come to him recently inquiring about the project but neither submitted a bid
“Would there be an option of the county bidding this out? We have a building committee. Could they sub it out and build it,” asked Second District Commissioner Jimmy Midgett?
“That’s a possibility but anything (project) over $25,000 that the county spends you’ve got to have an engineer or architect according to Tennessee Code Annotated,” replied County Mayor Stribling.
“I can get with Donny (Green) and see if there are some things we can cut out. This is a two bay fire hall. We might could look at a one bay fire hall. You could still have a one bay fire hall with a restroom,” said Stribling.
“There are no frills. Its a metal building with steel construction and concrete floors,” said County Fire Chief Green.
“I am concerned about this because its in my and Commissioner Jerry Adcock’s district and for four years this has been on-going trying to get something constructed. This is affecting our ISO rating. I worry if we keep putting this off the bids are going to continue to get higher. We’re four years into this and not a brick has been laid,” said Fifth District Commissioner Anita Puckett.
“I know we need to look toward the future but we need to look at getting them something we can afford. I think it needs to be a one bay fire hall but it does need a bathroom in it,” added Sixth District Commissioner Betty Atnip.
According to County Mayor Stribling, current plans call for the fire hall to be 40’ x 55’ in size consisting of two bays, a restroom, shower, and a small meeting room. He said while the plans do not include any frills it will be a turnkey project with all the work including construction, concrete pad, septic tank, etc all to be done under one contract.
A new fire station at Four Seasons would be the 12th station in the county operated by the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department. The other fire halls are on Short Mountain Highway, Midway Community, Belk, Keltonburg, Cookeville Highway, Austin Bottom Community, Liberty, Temperance Hall, Main Station, Johnson Chapel, and Blue Springs.