City and County present scaled-back 60% design for Joint Public Safety Facility; project funding said to be in place

City and county officials and the design team presented a 60% design update for a Joint Public Safety Facility and said the project has been scaled back from an earlier, much larger estimate and is being funded through a mix of grants and local commitments.

Todd Milkey, County administrator, told the joint meeting the project team had been “directed to reduce the project cost significantly by about a third” and reported that the current design-based estimate is roughly $20.6 million to $20.8 million, with staff proposing a rounded working budget of $22 million to include contingency for market uncertainty.

Why it matters: the facility is planned to house emergency management and public-safety communications (PenCom) functions in a single resilient building intended to serve the region during major incidents. Cost, schedule and grant deadlines—especially for a FEMA grant—are driving the design and procurement timeline.

At the presentation, Wendy Head, program manager with OAC Services, said the team achieved the reductions by “optimizing the programs for EOC and PenCom,” reducing circulation, combining a common lobby to eliminate redundant space, moving mechanical rooms to a central location and changing some materials and structural systems. Head outlined five major program…