Spring City council pursues CIB funding to expand fire station to house new engine

Spring City council members heard a presentation on options to expand and upgrade the city's fire station and agreed to prepare an application for a CIB grant by the Feb. 1 deadline.

Council members and staff discussed whether to construct a new station at a new site or add a two-story 50-by-70-foot addition to the existing three-bay building. The addition would create a drive-through bay and two additional apparatus spaces, training and decontamination facilities, showers and an area to separate turnout gear from vehicle exhaust.

The project team said preliminary cost estimates range from about $1 million to $1.25 million for the addition, with revisions pushing some estimates closer to $1.5 million when roof replacement and other items are included. A separate equipment line item would cover a new structure engine valued in the transcript at about $650,000.

"So we need to be looking at how we kind of take care of the fire department over the next long term," a council member said during the presentation, noting the city must present a project that will serve the community for the next 20 to 30 years.

Chad, a staff member who provided schematic drawings, described the plan to attach a wood-frame two-story addition to the existing metal/brick façade station. He said the addition would connect to the existing bays by removing part of a non-load-bearing wall, but would not replace structural steel that supports the current building. The addition would match the existing brick veneer where it is adjacent to the older building and use lower-cost stucco on other elevations to control costs.

Council members discussed regulatory drivers and safety upgrades required by standards such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The consultants flagged that the department cannot meet some NFPA guidance without the addition, including space to decontaminate and house turnout gear separately from apparatus bays. One bid line item described in the presentation priced an exhaust-removal system for vehicle bays at roughly $100,000.

Speakers also reviewed the revenue implications of sending apparatus to state mutual-aid incidents: a brush truck deployment on a recent incident produced roughly $21,000 in revenue for the city and overtime pay for three crew members who worked two weeks. Council members noted those mutual-aid reimbursements are a source of revenue but cannot be counted on annually.

Staff outlined the CIB application timetable: the grant application is due Feb. 1, the city would meet with reviewers in May, and, if an award is offered, the city would have about 30 days to accept terms. Council members recited examples of possible funding mixes the CIB might offer, including grants combined with long-term loans. One council member summarized loan terms mentioned by the CIB representative: 30-year loans at roughly 3% interest were described as a current example.

Council members discussed affordability scenarios using example loan amounts from the presentation: a $750,000 loan at 3% would carry an estimated monthly payment of about $3,162, while a $450,000 loan at the same rate would be about $1,897 per month.

Next steps recorded in the meeting included asking staff and consultants to secure final bids for building and roof work, finalize the project scope to include equipment if feasible, and prepare and submit the CIB application by the February 1 deadline. No formal roll-call vote on the application was recorded in the transcript; the meeting record shows the council directed staff to proceed with the application and continued design work.

If the CIB offer includes a mix of grant and loan, council members said they would expect to return to a future meeting to evaluate the specific terms before accepting.