Cold Spring Council Authorizes Schematic Designs For New Fire Hall

(KNSI) – The Cold Spring City Council and building commission met Wednesday evening to okay advancing to the schematic design phase for the new fire hall.

A preliminary cost estimate runs to nearly $8 million. City Administrator Kris Dockendorf says there is no sticker shock. “It wasn’t a surprise because we’ve been talking about this for several meetings already. It was probably a surprise the first time we heard it, but we’ve wrapped our brains around it now.”

Some of the assumptions to reach that figure include a cost of $395 per square foot and a 10% contingency for unexpected hiccups during the build. Construction costs would be about $6 million, with design and other soft costs like furniture making up the remainder.

The process is still in the early stages. The new fire hall will go up on a site purchased from Cold Spring Granite on Main Street. It was only an early step, though. Dockendorf says the project will not be ready for bid until 2024, most likely.

“If I had to guess, I would say [we’ll meet] probably once a month as they are designing. They’ll be coming back to us, and then hopefully in early spring, we can go to bid if it’s all designed by then.”

Plans call for five apparatus bays, a gear locker, a self-contained breathing apparatus locker, a training room and conference center, and more. The building would be mostly a single story spread out across over 16,000 square feet.

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