Dear Editor,
This is an open letter to residents of the Apalachin Fire District. What a year it has been! The past year brought a lot of activity within your fire district including responding to almost 700 calls for assistance, multiple structure fires, further development of our water rescue team, and significant progress on our collective efforts to rebuild station 1.
On that front, the Board of Fire Commissioners has accepted the low bids in response to our bid package received in December. In March of 2017, we will formally break ground on the demolition of old Station 1 and the construction of the new station.
The location will remain the same at 230 Pennsylvania Ave., although the new structure will move south on the lot to improve safety for responders and the public as fire trucks will now enter Pennsylvania Avenue at the crest of the hill. The new station is expected to be approximately 10,150 square feet, not including significant mezzanine space in the garage bays for storage and mechanical equipment.
As required by Public Works Law, there are four distinct bids on any municipal project. The following were the awarded amounts from the low bidders: Middendorf Contracting, Wysox, Pa. – $1,803,000; HVAC: Kimble, Inc., Elmira, N.Y. – $309,200; Plumbing: Petcosky & Sons; Vestal, N.Y. – $234,577; and Electrical: Spectrum Electrical Services, Montrose, Pa. – $249,500.
Total hard dollar construction costs awarded thus far are $2,598,177. Please keep in mind that this figure does not include soft dollar costs such as engineering and architecture fees, permits and licenses, financing fees, etc. These “soft costs” are material and substantial as well and although we don’t know precisely what they will all be yet, your Fire District does have a budget in place to fund these without further increases to your tax levy beyond the voter approved referendum in 2015.
I commit to keeping you up to date as we progress on this project through completion. We anticipate “substantial completion” on the new station by Oct. 1, 2017 and plan to be back on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2017.
Finally, I’d like to welcome Jarvis Henderson as our new fire commissioner for the 2017-2021 term. The election held Dec. 13 filled two seats on the Board of Fire Commissioners; Jarvis and I were both successful with my term ending Dec. 31, 2018.
I am confident that working together our team of commissioners will act as prudent stewards of your tax dollars and ensure you continue to get the best value, dollar for dollar, out of your government. As always, I invite you to reach out at any time. Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Brian Rieber
Chairman, Board of Fire Commissioners
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