Steps taken for next fire station

BENTONVILLE — The city is moving forward on its seventh fire station, according to contracts the City Council approved at its meeting Tuesday.

The council approved 7-0 hiring Jackson Brown Palculict Architects to design the station for $108,450, CEI Engineering for civil engineering work for $30,800 and Clinard Construction for the preconstruction work, creating bid packages and overseeing construction for $125,000.

Clinard Construction will work with JBP Architects to value engineer — analyzing the project’s requirements to achieve the essential functions at the lowest cost — the station, according to meeting documents.

Station No. 7 will be on 2.3 acres just north of Parc Apartments on Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard in the city’s southwest. It will be built on Southwest Prime Avenue.

JBP Architects also designed Station No. 6 at 3312 S.W. I St., which opened in March 2015 with nine firefighters. It offered the city discounts on future stations with the same design, Brent Boydston, fire chief, told the City Council in a memo.

The design will cost 3.738 percent of the construction cost, according to meeting documents. Construction is estimated to cost $2.5 million, which puts the architectural fees at $93,450 and $15,000 for reimbursables for a total of $108,450.

Ward 3 council member Bill Burckart asked if the value engineering could be avoided since the design from Station No. 6 will be used.

Construction factors have changed over the last few years, Boydston said. The architect design will remain largely intact, but the mechanical operations of the building need to be evaluated.

Mark Clinard with Clinard Construction added that value engineering is needed because the location and site is different than Station No. 6. Value engineering will look at the functions and efficiencies of the building, he said.

“Part of the process is to help him [the architect] and Brent [Boydston] address their needs now,” he said.

The construction of Station No. 7 will likely happen in 2019, Mayor Bob McCaslin said Tuesday afternoon before the meeting. It will be staffed with nine to 10 employees.

A seventh station is needed for quick response times, to keep distances to a fire station and to meet the increase in calls for service, Boydston said in the fall during 2018 budget discussions.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports Bentonville’s population was 44,499 in 2015, up from 35,313 in 2010.

Station No. 7 will be about 4 miles southwest of Station No. 6. The city’s southwest area has seen rapid growth over the last few years as that’s where land is available. The City Council approved the annexation of more than 130 acres in the southwest area in November.

The Insurance Service Office evaluates the distribution of fire stations in each community as part of its Public Protection Classification program, which is commonly known as a city’s ISO rating. Ratings under the program help determine home insurance rates. The lower the number, the better the rating.

The program’s criteria says an area should have a fire station within 1.5 road miles of the protected properties and a ladder-service truck within 2.5 road miles, according to Fire Chiefs Online, a website provided by the program.

“Those benchmark criteria produce an expected response time of 3.2 minutes for an engine company and 4.9 minutes for a ladder-service company,” the website reads.