Proposals for Cape fire station stay within budget

The city of Cape Girardeau has received five design-build proposals for a new fire station, all of them within the city’s $3 million budget for the project.

City staff members are reviewing plans and hope to narrow the proposals to three within the next week. They will interview those design-build teams, with a goal of making a recommendation to the city council April 4.

Construction is expected to begin this summer with completion in 2017. The exact date of completion varies with each proposal.

Plans call for construction of a three-bay fire station on the southwest corner of Lexington and Flad avenues on the city’s north side. The new station would replace a much smaller station, built 42 years ago at 1459 Kurre Lane.

The city has outgrown Fire Station No. 4 and needs a larger station that can accommodate an engine, ladder truck and a support vehicle such as a brush truck, according to city officials.

“We want something similar to Station 3,” said Anna Kangas, the city’s building and code enforcement manager who is leading the project. Kangas said the new station would not be as large as the North Sprigg Street station, which also houses the city’s police and fire dispatching operation.

In addition to apparatus bays, city officials said the new station should include partitioned sleep areas for a three-member crew, as well as a kitchen, dining room, day room, captain’s office, study room, fitness room with three pieces of cardio equipment and free weights, laundry room, three shower rooms and an accessible public restroom. The city also would prefer the structure include a basement or partial basement for storage, Kangas said.

A toilet and sink would be included in each shower room, Kangas said, adding the goal is to provide privacy for the male and female firefighters.

Plans call for the fire station to have two entrances for the bays. Firetrucks would enter from the back of the building off Cape May Drive. The trucks would exit onto Lexington when responding to alarms.

City officials have not spelled out an exact design, but have conveyed a general idea to the contractors and architects.

“We are asking for something that will blend into the neighborhood,” Kangas said, explaining the lot is in a residential area. The city staff has suggested a brick exterior and called for the project to include landscaping to screen the station from nearby homes.

Two of the proposals were submitted by design-build teams that also seek to construct Cape Girardeau’s new police station. The construction companies and architects associated with the fire-station proposals have had experience designing and building fire stations in Missouri and Illinois. Some of them have been involved in construction of other fire stations in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson areas.

Kiefner Brothers Construction of Cape Girardeau and local architect Mitchell Blake Malone submitted the lowest-priced proposal. It calls for construction of a 10,400-square-foot building with a basement at a cost of $2.45 million. The structure would be “substantially” completed by April 2017 and turned over to the city in early May, according to the proposal.

The St. Louis firms of PARIC Construction and JEMA Architects, which also seeks to build the Cape Girardeau police station, have proposed to erect a one-story, 9,826-square-foot station at a cost of just under $3 million. The structure would be completed by September 2017, the design-build team said.

Zoellner Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau and Perryville, Missouri, and Archimages of St. Louis have proposed to build a 12,916-square-foot station at a cost of $2.91 million. The design-build team said the structure could be built for $48,000 less if it doesn’t include a basement. The team envisioned the project could be completed by May 2017.

Archimages, the architectural firm, also is involved with another of the fire-station proposals. Armitage and KCI Construction of St. Louis have submitted a plan to build a 13,500-square-foot fire station with a partial basement and keep the cost within the budget.

Penzel Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau County — in partnership with Holland Construction Co. of Swansea, Illinois, and Dille and Traxel Architecture of Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and FGM Architects of St. Louis and Chicago — has proposed to build a single-story, 10,225-square-foot structure with a walkout basement within the $3 million budget. The design-build team said it would take four to five months to design the station and seven months to build. Penzel-Holland also recently submitted a design-build proposal for the police station.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

3011 Lexington Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

1459 Kurre Lane, Cape Girardeau, Mo.