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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Walls going up at new Fairfield fire station
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – After months of site preparation, construction on the new Fairfield fire station is now fast and furious, with walls going up every day and giving the public a glimpse of what will become a nearly 20,000-square-foot building, more than double the size of the current fire station.
Christner Contracting Inc. of Ottumwa won the bid to build the fire station for $7.3 million back in November 2024. By the spring, a chain-link fence surrounded the corner of West Briggs Avenue and North Fourth Street where a building belonging to the Iowa DOT once stood, which was demolished in the summer of 2023.
Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director Melanie Carlson said the cost of construction has since been updated to about $7.7 million after Christner Contracting learned that constructing a new building on the site wouldn’t be so easy. After the DOT building was demolished, workers discovered a basement below the earth dating back to when the Fairfield High School was there, prior to the current building which was erected in the 1930s. Removing the old basement raised the cost of the project almost $400,000.
“The basement was actually under the old DOT building, which explains some of the issues with the old DOT buildings including sticking doors or doors not closing properly,” Carlson told The Union. “With design fees paid to date, estimated testing fees during construction, and the estimated cost of furnishings that are not included in the building cost, the total project cost is estimated at $8,865,000.”
The updated timeline for the fire station still calls for it to be finished in 2026, though now closer to the end of the year instead of mid-year like the city originally hoped. It will have about a 17,000-square-foot footprint, plus a 1,433-square-foot second floor that includes storage and an exercise room, and then lastly a three-story training tower.
Carlson said the city has not made any decisions about what will become of the current fire station, a building that also houses Jefferson County Public Health on its north side. The current building is about 12,000 square feet, and the fire station occupies about 9,000 square feet of it.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
