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Committee advances $1 million appropriation to rebuild Woodland Fire garage after blaze
Summary
The St. Joseph County committee recommended a $1,000,000 appropriation funded by an insurance payment to rebuild the Woodland Fire garage; officials said sizeable change orders covered fire suppression, bringing the structure up to code and replacing damaged steel and electrical systems.
The St. Joseph County committee voted to send a favorable recommendation for Bill 11-25a, an appropriation of $1,000,000 to the Woodland Fire account for rebuilding a garage damaged by fire.
The money, Council officials said, comes from an insurance payment and is intended to cover repairs and code-related upgrades. Brie Roberts, director of Physical Assets, told the committee, “This money will go towards the rebuild and this money comes from the insurance check that we received from damages paid back.”
County staff and the contractor reported a large change order tied to restoring the facility and bringing it up to current code. Skye Matters of the Department of Infrastructure Planning and Growth explained that a change order of $561,925 addressed fire suppression and related work: “there was fire damage repairs, the erection of the hoop structure … cleaning of the steel due to the soot and debris,” and items to bring the building to current standards.
Matters and Roberts said some elements were not part of the original base bid because the rebuild followed an insurance claim and included upgrades that were not previously present. “There wasn't existing fire suppression before…we decided that was a good idea. And then there were also certain code upgrades that were required. So one of them being, like, a concrete floor versus the dirt floor that was there before because we are holding heavy machinery,” Roberts said.
Officials said the county used Yoder Construction, which was already working on an IPG (Infrastructure Planning and Growth) project at the site, and that a change order with the existing contractor was preferable to terminating that contract and re-bidding the single garage.
Roberts said the appropriation was rounded to $1,000,000 as a contingency if incidental costs caused a small overrun; any leftover funds would remain in the account and roll back into county reserves at year-end. The committee moved the appropriation forward with a favorable recommendation to the full council.
Next steps: the item will go to the full St. Joseph County Council for final action.
