News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Soil samples returned positive, Cookeville officials prepared to purchase land along North Washington Avenue for the construction of a new Fire Station 2.
City Manager James Mills said the bigger concern now, the first cost estimates to build both stations two and three. The city had hoped that building the two at the same time might result in savings.
“We’ve looked at some of the preliminary costs, and they’re coming in a lot higher than we had anticipated,” Mills said. “I know Chief (Benton Young)’s working diligently on this to try, we’re looking at doing some modifications to the plan so we can get the cost down to closer to what we had anticipated. But the first numbers we’ve gotten are substantially higher than we anticipated. The reason why I go ahead and tell you this is that if it stays this I’m not sure we’ll be doing two at one time.”
Chief Benton Young said he believes costs will come down with some of the modifications being made to the original plans. Young said the majority of those are more aesthetic right now.
“It’s all part of the process,” Mills said. “We went through some of the same thing when we did the (police department). You just go through and get your numbers, and if they’re not working, you look at alternatives and ways to make changes a week.”
Mills said they have considered major changes, such as reducing the number of bays from four to three, but they do not want to do that.
Regardless, Mills said it makes sense to go ahead and purchase the Washington Avenue land now that will be needed. Due diligence has been completed, including architectural work to make sure the facility will fit on the site. Mills said it will be tight, but it will work.
“We do believe this is an excellent location for station two,” Mills said.
The price for the two plats, $650,000 plus closing costs. The city has already paid option fees for the land. Council will vote to give Mills final approval to move forward with contracts Thursday.
