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Council sets Oct. 8 public hearing for Atkins Fire Station project
Summary
The council voted to set a public hearing for Oct. 8, 2024, on contract documents and estimated costs for the Atkins Fire Station project. Staff told council FEMA review of revised plans could take 45–90 days but described the risk of final disapproval as low; staff also clarified updated cost estimates and an earlier packet-link error.
The city council voted to set a public hearing for Oct. 8, 2024, on the contract documents and estimated costs for the Atkins Fire Station project, a step staff said would launch the city’s roughly four-week timetable to advertise plans for bids and schedule a pre-bid meeting.
Staff described the procurement timeline and told the council that, if the hearing is set, the city will publish plans for bid, hold a pre-bid meeting about midway through the bid period and accept bids with the intention of presenting them at the Oct. 8 council meeting alongside the public hearing. The presenter said printed plans would be available at City Hall for public review.
A staff member responsible for grant and FEMA coordination said the revised plans had been submitted to the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. "It is gonna take FEMA, they're saying minimum 45 days, maximum 90 days," the staff member said, describing the agency’s environmental historic preservation (EHP) review and noting that staying within an already-reviewed EHP footprint should shorten review time. The staff member added that a fire station is considered an essential facility and characterized the risk of FEMA ultimately refusing to approve the project as "incredibly low."
Councilmembers raised a discrepancy between packet versions that showed differing cost numbers. Staff acknowledged an older draft or placeholder in an earlier link listed a $6,000,000 figure, but said the updated, official packet lists a construction cost estimate of $4,510,000 and a total project-cost estimate described in the packet as about $5,100,000. Staff attributed the confusion to an older draft link that had been circulated in error and confirmed the corrected packet is on the city website and that paper copies were available at the meeting.
After discussion, a council member moved to set the Oct. 8 public hearing; the motion was seconded and carried on a roll-call vote. The clerk announced that all council members recorded “aye.” The public hearing and bid-award considerations are scheduled for the Oct. 8 meeting.
The next procedural step is the Oct. 8 public hearing and the council will have the bids and the public record to consider on that date.
