| Chiefs react to council’s split, cut |
By: JIM HAMMERAND, Staff Writer
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Posted: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:49 pm
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NORTHFIELD — The city’s public safety heads say they’re fine with separate buildings, but are wondering how they’ll make cuts to plans that don’t yet exist.
The City Council last week voted to schedule construction of a new police headquarters in 2011 and fire hall in 2012 on an $8.5 million budget, despite a panel’s recommendation to build a joint, $10.4 million facility.
Council members, who approved the budget and timeline 6 to 1, said the Safety Center Task Force wasn’t asked to consider reuse of the current site on the corner of Hwy. 3 and Fifth Street or free land offered after the group disbanded.
The council has not yet decided how to divide the $8.5 million between the two projects, and even that number is, for now, only a place holder in the city’s five-year infrastructure spending plan.
Police Chief Mark Taylor and Fire Chief Gerry Franek say their department operations will not be hurt by the separation, but said the split could increase construction costs. A joint facility would share mechanical equipment and work spaces, and those efficiencies would likely be lost with separate sites.
The council’s move could realize bigger savings. Keeping the two departments together could have required the city to buy enough private land for the building’s footprint and future expansion. Splitting them would let the city build a new fire hall on the Safety Center site and a police building on the donated land, perhaps saving the city more than would the efficiencies of a single building.
“Instead of questions being answered, I think we have more questions we have to answer,” said Franek. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and hammer all these things out once again.”
The task force, of which both Franek and Taylor were members, used figures from comparable projects in the area and current staffing and operation levels to reach the $10.4 million figure. That number doesn’t include the cost of land, and Taylor said there’s not much fluff to cut.
“That was pretty much needs. There aren’t a lot of wants,” he said. “I’d always hate to go back to the voters in 10 years and say we should have built it bigger.”
Still, the council’s budget gives the two departments “a starting point,” Taylor said.
“I will live with and I will work with any figure that they say we have to work with,” he said.
Franek said the easiest way to cut costs would be to reduce the size of the facilities, but didn’t endorse the idea.
“If you got down to the size, of course we can cut the cost of it, but you know if you cut the size, then you’re doing the opposite of what we set out to do, which is plan for the future,” he said. “If you’re going to build something with equal space, there’s no gain and I’d say leave us alone and leave us there until we can afford it.”
THE COSTS
Materials, location, competition among contractors and other factors will be considered in the construction of new fire and police facilities. To estimate the cost, the Safety Center Task Force consultant looked to similar projects in other cities and concluded that a new fire hall could cost between $150 and $160 per square foot, and a police station $180 to $190 per square foot.
Similar local projects had the following costs per square foot (adjusted for inflation to Spring 2010):
• Lakeville Police: $190
• Farmington Police: $180
• Prior Lake Fire: $170
• Farmington Fire: $165
• New Prague Fire $155
— Jim Hammerand covers the city. He can be reached at jhammerand@northfieldnews.com or 645-1114. |
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