The City Council on Oct. 13 unanimously approved a $5.9 million contract with NDC Construction Co. to build Fire Station 74, a long-planned replacement for the aging station that serves the Bay Pines area.
The vote authorizes City Manager Ann Toney-Deal to sign the construction contract. The 7,316-square-foot, two-bay station will go up on city-owned land along 100th Avenue near Bay Pines Boulevard, next to the Walmart shopping center. The developer of the shopping center gave the parcel to the city years ago as part of its development agreement, which also requires that any building there match the look of the surrounding area.
The new station will replace one across the street. City leaders say the current building no longer meets the needs of a modern fire department. Mayor Leslie Waters described its condition during the council discussion.
“The one we have across the street is an old church. It’s been painted a dozen times over the years, and it has so many Band-Aids you can hardly see,” Waters said.
NDC’s bid came in about $600,000 below the project’s $6.5 million pre-bid engineering estimate. Under a longstanding agreement, Seminole and Pinellas County will share the cost of site work and construction, and the county will pay most of it.
“When this project’s done, it’s roughly a 70/30 split with the county,” Toney-Deal told the council. “All of that now is under what we and the county have budgeted with this package, even with the extra dormers.”
Toney-Deal also warned that the city would hold the contractor to its price once work begins.
“Whomever you decide to award this to, my very first meeting with them will be very clear what my opinion is on change orders,” she said. “Standing on their head in the middle of a major highway may be the easiest way for them to get me to sign off on one. You have to really be compelling to have one approved, in my opinion.”
The station will be built in the Mediterranean Revival style, with sloped roofs of durable material made to resemble traditional tile, arched windows and matching exterior walls. The design is meant to fit with the neighboring shops and the two-story townhomes directly behind the site.
The design drew the only debate of the night. The council considered two optional dormers at $16,545 each: Proposal A, a front dormer over the main entrance, and Proposal B, a matching dormer on the back of the building facing the townhomes.
Toney-Deal recommended the front dormer to make the station look less like a plain government building.
“I think that just is a very nice finish, reasonably priced, and I think it just gives it more of a blend with the residents that are behind it in all two-story houses,” she said.
Councilor Thom Barnhorn agreed.
“It’s got parts to it that just stand out and say, ‘Hey, this is something good,’” Barnhorn said. “To me, it fits the perimeters of that neighborhood.”
Others preferred a simpler roofline.
“I don’t see the gain of it, and I really like the clean look without it,” Councilor Al Sheilds said.
Vice Mayor Chris Burke raised concerns about hurricanes.
“If we do the dormers, it changes the roof outline, which is never good when we get hurricanes to have extra walls and shapes of the roof like that,” Burke said. “Anything that can catch the wind is usually not good.”
City staff said the roof design meets all local building codes for hurricane-force winds. The council approved the front dormer 4-3 and dropped the rear dormer.
NDC was selected through a competitive process that drew 14 contractors to a mandatory pre-bid meeting. Bidders had to be state-certified building contractors and submit a bid bond equal to 5% of their bid. A city review committee chose NDC for its low base price, strong references, experienced project managers and record of avoiding cost overruns.
Project documents also lay out several site requirements. Driveways and parking areas around the truck bays will be concrete, not asphalt as earlier drafts showed. The contractor must follow a traffic-control plan while working along 100th Avenue, and city staff is talking with neighboring property managers about using the east side of the Walmart parking lot to store heavy equipment. Utility connections and driveway permits will go through Pinellas County. The city is not seeking LEED green-building certification for the station.
Before construction begins, the city must finalize its funding agreement with Pinellas County.