City Commissioners approved a change order for the fire station renovations project during their Oct. 1 meeting.

Commissioners approved the initial construction contract to James Talcott Construction for the project in April 2023 and construction began in June 2023.

The city changed the scope of the project and commissioners approved a $32,717.68 change order in May.

Construction has largely wrapped up, but some smaller items were needed to complete the project, according to city staff.

City adjusts contract for fire station improvements

The second change order, approved on Oct. 1, includes additional lighting, electrical wiring, paint and door finishes and is $14,540.94.

The final needed items should arrive in November and the project will be completed at that time, according to staff.

The combined two change orders is $47,258.62 for a contract total of $2,778,458.62.

The project is funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds, which are federal COVID relief dollars.

Since other ARPA projects came in under budget, Sylvia Tarman, the city’s ARPA manager, said that there were unallocated funds to offset the increase.

City Commission approves $2.73 million contract for fire station upgrades [2023]

At the start of construction in 2023, the project team agreed to hold on work at Station 4 in Fox Farm to account for any scope or budget overruns at the other three stations since Station 4 had substantial work in 2019, according to city staff.

“As work has progressed, the project team has identified numerous opportunities to optimize the functionality of Fire Stations 1, 2 and 3 by changing the designs of certain infrastructure items and completing items that were not included in the original scope. The construction crew also encountered many unknown obstacles over the course of the project that needed to be accommodated for, including additional asbestos containing materials, plumbing issues, and old, abandoned features within the walls and ceilings,” city staff said in 2024.

City approves design contract for fire station upgrades [2022]

As the budget for the other three stations increased, the budget for Station 4 decreased.

But over the winter, the boilers had Station 4 had a number of issues that needed to be addressed so the project team decided that other items at Station 4 could be handled later but the boiler needed to be replaced now, so the contract change accounts for replacing the boiler and electrical panel and removing the other project scope items at Station 4.

Fox Farm fire station reopening soon [2021]

Those changes were included in the May 2024 change order.

The original contract was for $2,731,200.