No bidders for construction of new Lake Wateree fire station – The Independent Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County

FAIRFIELD COUNTY The new fire station thats planned nearLake Wateree came out of its initial bid process with disappointing results:Not a single company bid on the project.

Fairfield County Fire Chief Jason Pope says he isnt surewhy no bids came in, but the details of the design and the surprising recentincrease in the price of construction materials may have been factors.

His plan is to redesign the project with the goal of makingit simpler and, perhaps, easier to bid on.

We didnt have anyone really call us or say why they didnt bid.

As to the exact reason I couldnt tell you. We didnt haveanybody really call us and tell us why they would or would not bid, Pope toldthe Fairfield County Council at Monday nights meeting. However, what I cantell you is that our plan going forward [is that] were going to revisit thearchitectural drawings and were going to make it a little bit simpler.

Then, he explained in an interview Tuesday, they will activelyseek bidders.

Given the high price of lumber, he says hes not sure if thebuilding can still be constructed for the budgeted $375,000, which was approvedby the council in February. But he wont know until he gets some bids.

Thats definitely going to be a challenge, he says of current building material costs, which hes been told make the cost of constructing a building with wood comparable to the cost of a metal building.

We put this bid package together last fall, and then themoney was approved in February of this year, and during that time is when thelumber price spike happened, and so were not sure how thats going to affectit, he says.

What we budgeted for the building the price is going tobe higher than that obviously, but without getting bids you dont know whatits going to be.

If the bids come in a lot higher than expected, he says,then the county will have to consider its options whether that meansallocating more funding, delaying the project, or further simplifying the designto cut costs. But first, they need some bids.

We want the fire station built, Pope says. Its going tohelp protect the citizens and the residents of the county, so were going to doeverything we can to get it built.

The new fire station would be the 15th in the countysmostly-volunteer system, which staffs five stations during business hours andrelies on volunteers to cover the rest of the time and the rest of the county.

Pope says new volunteer firefighters are always welcome; thenumber today roughly 165 countywide is slightly more than half of what itwas 25 years ago.

When the countys volunteer fire departments openedbeginning 50 years ago in 1971, he says, they relied on a strong base ofcommunity support. A decade ago, in 2011, the independent departments wereconsolidated under the county fire service as a core function of localgovernment.

The new fire station, a project initiated and pushed intoreality by former County Councilman Jimmy Ray Douglas, is to be built on RiverRoad between the Lake Wateree Presbyterian Church and the recycling center.

The plan includes four bays to house a fire truck, tanker,boat, and EMS vehicle, as well as restrooms, showers, a kitchen, and livingquarters to accommodate firefighters who might man the facility in the future.

Originally proposed in 2007, the project began in earnestabout four years ago, Pope says. It took roughly two years for the county toobtain the 2.4-acre site to build it on, and site work has been completed bycounty public works employees; its now ready for the building.

In the area where it is to be located, Pope says, there areapproximately 300 homes that are currently more than five road miles from thenearest fire station a distance that means homeowners have increased insurancepremiums and, more importantly, increased risk in the event of a fire.

This fire station will put fire trucks in their back yardavailable to respond, Pope says, and it will significantly reduce theirhomeowners insurance.

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No bidders for construction of new Lake Wateree fire station - The Independent Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County