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After voters approved a 2.3 million addition and renovation of Lansing Central Fire Station in September fire commissioners expected the $2.3 million project would be ready to go out to bid shortly after the first of the year.  Over the past month or two they have showed some restraint in expressing frustration as the project has been stalled in paperwork.

"That's how we were going to do it," Fire Commissioner Jeff Walters says.  "There's more red tape than we can shake a stick at.  If you had this when you build a house you'd never build a house."


The main features of the project are an additional equipment bay for emergency response vehicles, a decontamination room, and a men's and women's bunker wing.  Two of the three pieces of the current facility do not meet building code.  The first is the absence of a decontamination facility.  Equipment exposed to chemicals or blood during a 911 call are currently decontaminated in an equipment bay (the large garage space that holds fire engines) or the station's kitchen where emergency responders make coffee and food.

The second is the bunker facility -- the station has no bunkers because it's dormitory facility doesn't meet code.  The ability to house emergency responders in safe, private quarters is key to the department's volunteer recruiting strategy.  Chief Scott Purcell says that recruiting is virtually on hold until the new wing is completed.

Purcell also says that operations will not be significantly impacted by the construction.  While some equipment will have to be stored, the construction area will be fenced off and contractors have already been put on notice that ample room must be left for emergency response vehicles to get in and out.

Two weeks ago Commissioners considered five bids to move a water line, work that must be completed before construction on the station can begin.  At last Tuesday's meeting they awarded the bid to Alex Cole Paving.  Fire officials say that work can be done this winter.


That will be in plenty of time before construction begins.  The start date currently being floated is July 1st, with a completion deadline of July 1st, 2011.  While commissioners acknowledge that municipal projects typically start slowly they have been frustrated by delays in paperwork, contract agreements, and planning.

"You get a contract from the architect," says Commissioner Alvin Parker.  "Now your lawyer has to look at it.  The lawyer doesn't like the way some of the wording is, so it goes back to the architect.  The architect says no.  It goes back to the lawyer.  The lawyer goes back to the architect.  We've been doing that now for three months."

Deputy Town Supervisor Connie Wilcox, who is also the Town's liaison to the Fire District, says that the delays are common in municipal projects.

"There is a lot of paperwork and a lot of bureaucracy to it," she notes.  "The commissioners don't have a construction manager working for them, so it takes a little bit more time and energy on their part as well.  It's understandable what they're going through, but it's also frustrating at times, because I think they thought things would be in place by the first of this year.  That's just the way it is."

Walters says that contract negotiations are not holding up actual work on the project.  He says that fire officials have met with the architect and engineers up to five times since the voters approved the project, and that they were even scheduled to meet with an interior decorator in mid-February.  That meeting had to be postponed because of snow.

But Walters is pushing to have materials ready to put the project to bid as soon as possible.

"They told me the end of April," he says.  "I told them I want it by the middle of April.  There are still some Ts to cross and some Is to dot."

The addition will be completed with no additional cost to taxpayers, largely due to long term planning and saving to a building reserve fund.

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