By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Taylor Mill commissioner Ed Kuehne gave an update on the progress of the plans for the new firehouse, at the regular commission meeting last week, which is tentatively planned to be built in the city.
Kuehne, along with Commissioner Dan Murray, CAO Brian Haney, Fire Chief John Stager and Assistant Fire Chief General Fernbach had beenappointed by the commission as the city’s representatives on the design team for the project.
Kuehne held up two drawings, one of the outside of the building and the other the inside floor plan, and stressed that these were totally preliminary, accomplished to give an idea of the scope of the project.
“These are preliminary draft drawings, that shows you what it will look like,” said Kuehne. “There are three bays. This shows you some of the structure. I want to tell you we went through it this morning, for several hours, going through it line item by line item, it goes back to everything from a one inch water hose over the top of each firetruck so they can fill it up when they come back, to the bedding that we’re going to be taking out of the old firehouse because the bedding we bought was new, to making sure the four inch platform is down there for the new washer and dryer, the hazardous equipment, to—I mean four pages of line item by line items.”
Kuehne said that the numbers are looking good, and they will go over them again in 30 to 45 days.
“The numbers we put together this morning with everything going on, even the contingency numbers are within budget, matter of fact, below budget,” he said. “I’m doing everything I can, even though I voted not to do it, I’m doing everything I can to make sure we stay within budget and go from there.”
He said it got down to, do we put carpet in the bedrooms or the main room, or put down sealed concrete in those rooms? He stated that they dug deep.
One thing he wasn’t aware of is the need of a retention pond that will be on the property, and will be 10 feet deep. It apparently has to be created so that the water run off won’t wipe out the houses and pools of the people in the area.
“We hope to have it (the bottom line) some time in December, but if not, the first month of January; by the end of the first quarter we get a contract,” he stated. “And I have to tell you that the company we are dealing with, Mark Spaulding, are great people to work with. Will it be done next year? I doubt it. Because there are delays that come up.”
Commissioner Dan Murray addressed the audience consisting mostly of residents who had been against building a new firehouse, and are still attending meetings, questioning how the city is spending their money.
“The main thing to remember is that this is all preliminary, but it is all part of the package; we are paying for that package because they don’t work for free,” Murray explained. “Everything that has been done so far, everything is underbudget, under the $4 million, and we have a plan to squeeze a few more square feet out of the building.”
Kuehne confirmed that the first draft of the building was 12,000 square feet, but the drawings he had brought showed a 10,000 square foot building, and Murray said he thought they might be able to get it down smaller yet.
“It will be a super nice building,” he said. “It will not be top of the line, it will not be the lowest, it will be in the middle. Everything will be workable. We plan on if, down the road, they want to add a bay on the back, they can, but right now we have three bays, which is what we have in the firehouse right now.”
He stated that there has to be a tornado shelter in the proposed building, and they don’t have a choice in that matter. Murray said that there will be a mezzanine so they can move all the mechanicals up to the second floor, and there will be better drainage in the floor.
“It will be a building that will last for the next 50 years or so,” Murray said. “I was very happy with the numbers, and we do plan to take the size down a couple thousand more feet.”
Mayor Daniel Bell said what he heard from the reports of both commissioners, is that the city is doing their due diligence, making sure that what the city had talked about was coming to fruition.
However, Commissioner Mark Kreimborg pointed out that the $4 million price tag is being adhered to in the building, but there are other costs, like engineering costs, the soft cost of the furnishings, which both come out of other budgets, that don’t really get calculated in with the total cost of the building, and could inflate the total cost well over the $4 million.
Commissioner Murray countered, saying they are using whatever they can out of the old firehouse, and trying to scale the building down further, cutting corners wherever they can. But all the commissioners stressed that they realize they are working towards seeing if the company can produce something that will stay within the cost and work well with the city’s needs.
“The city’s representatives on the design team are all working hard, together, to ensure this project comes in at or below budget,” said CAO Haney. “It will be a product that the citizens of Taylor Mill will be reaping the benefits from for the next 50 plus years.”