Fairfield delays fire station bids and park buildings

FAIRFIELD — The rising cost of construction is forcing the City of Fairfield to delay construction of its new fire station, and delay a couple of shelters planned for city parks.

Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director Melanie Carlson said city staff met with the architect Klingner & Associates on Friday, July 21, to discuss putting the project out for bids. The city had originally planned to begin building the new fire station this year so it could be ready for firefighters to move into by late 2024. It will be built at the intersection of North Fourth Street and West Briggs Avenue, on the site of the recently demolished Iowa DOT buildings.

Carlson said that, because of rising costs that have pushed the project over budget, city staff decided to delay bidding until early 2024, which would give the city time to find additional grants. She said that delaying the bids until 2024 means that the fire station won’t be ready to move into until 2025.

“We’re hoping inflation doesn’t get worse, and that we can find some more funding sources,” Carlson said.

Carlson said city staff are exploring the idea of building the fire station in stages to spread the cost out over several years, by building the exterior first and then finishing the interior later.

“It’s not what we want, but unfortunately it’s the time we’re living in,” she said.

Carlson said part of the difficulty in finding funding sources was that the city was without a city administrator from early March, when Aaron Kooiker resigned, until mid-June, when the new city administrator, Doug Reinert, took over the role.

The fire station is not the only project that is being pushed off a year due to rising costs. The city also planned to construct a pair of structures later this year, one at Chautauqua Park and one at Waterworks Park, but the only bid that came back was too high. The council rejected the bid of just over $1 million from RG Construction of Ottumwa.

The city expected the project to cost about $718,000, with $550,000 of that money coming from the Edd and Darlene Felgar Estate, with the city contributing $168,000. The project entailed building a shelter with bathrooms and a kitchenette at Waterworks Park, and bathrooms with an adjoining maintenance shed at Chautauqua Park.

Carlson said city staff worked with RG Construction to see if the project could be trimmed so that it could get under budget, but she said there was no way to do it without significantly altering the project’s scope. She will work with Park and Rec Director Calvin Todd and City Administrator Doug Reinert to rework the scope of the project into something smaller and more affordable, perhaps by just building bathrooms.

Carlson said it was safe to say that construction on this project will not begin this year.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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