Chief open to all options
Consultant says needed upgrade for Central Fire Station would cost $3.8 million
City Fire Chief Mark Brown has not yet decided on the direction he’ll recommend after a report concluded the fire department’s headquarters needs $3.8 million in renovations.
But Brown is certain of at least one thing: If the city decides to keep its headquarters at 19 E. O’Reilly St., the apparatus bay floors need imminent replacement. The cost: at least $860,000.
Brown said he still needs to have discussions with city officials, including Mayor Steve Noble and members of the Common Council, to iron out a plan. He said he has not ruled out any options, including the possibility of building a new
fire headquarters.
“We have to weigh every option that is presented,” Brown said. “I think we have to do hard soul-searching before we move forward.
“The floor has got to be done and I have to bring the building up to code,” Brown added.
The $3.8 million renovation suggested by engineering consultant C.T. Male Associates Inc. of Latham comes at a time when the department is awaiting delivery of a new $950,000 ladder truck.
In September, the city finalized the purchase of the tiller truck that is being built by Smeal Fire Apparatus of Snyder, Neb., and was sold to the city by New England Fire Equipment and Apparatus of North Haven, Conn.
A tiller truck requires drivers at both the front and rear; a straight truck is driven only from the front.
In March, the Kingston Common Council voted in favor of the city spending up to $100,000 for asbestos removal at the Central Fire Station on East O’Reilly Street, primarily in the building’s basement. All but one of seven bids for the work then came in below the authorized threshold, and the job was awarded to NRC Inc. of Syracuse, which bid $42,000.
Now, the city is faced with the possibility of more spending at the station. The latest proposed renovation expenditure is likely to be a topic of conversation at the next meeting of the Common Council’s Finance/Audit Committee, which starts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, at City Hall.
The pending discussion follows C.T. Male’s report indicating that the Central Fire Station, built in the early 1900s, needs $3,793,124.40 worth of upgrades and repairs.
The report does not say
whether it might make more sense for the city to build a new main fire station or what such a project might cost.
“The intent of this evaluation,” the report states, “was to visually observe and document the existing condition of the existing building systems and components beyond the elevated concrete floor slab, which is scheduled for replacement, including building framing and brick veneer, plumbing systems, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, electrical systems, accessibility and fire apparatus access.”
C.T. Male says it crafted the report to make “general/conceptual recommendations for remedying these deficiencies, including a prioritized list of items with preliminary opinions of probable construction cost.”
The city contracted with C.T. Male last fall, for about $53,000, to conduct a full-scale study of structural conditions at the Central Fire Station. The consulting firm was brought in after another company, Peak Engineering, reported that steel reinforcements in the firehouse’s concrete floor, where the trucks are parked, had deteriorated significantly.
The Peak report said a section of the slab concrete was “saw-cut and chipped out,” revealing that some steel was missing.
“During the course of the concrete chipping, it was noted that there were significant voids between aggregates due to water infiltration, and the concrete’s resistance to chipping was markedly low,” the report said. “With the reinforcing bars revealed, it could be seen that the steel had undergone significant section loss.”
The Central Fire Station, a block and a half from Broadway and adjacent to the city’s Department of Public Works building, was built in 1907 and 1908.