Plans for the new fire station at the corner of Meridian Ranch Boulevard and Royal County Down Road are moving full steam ahead.At the end of March, the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District conveyed the deed for the property on which the new fire station will be built to the Falcon Fire Protection District, said Falcon fire chief Trent Harwig.The conveyance includes a “reverter” clause requiring that the property be returned to the Woodmen Hills metro district if a fire station is not built by 2012, said Dino Ross, Falcon fire district’s attorney.The district is working hard to stay within its $1.6 million budget.At the fire district board meeting March 18, Harwig said one of the contractors, The Copestone Co., submitted a bid for $1.6 million, but that bid omitted items such as a sealed and hardened floor in the bays, an upgrade to the overhead doors, an exhaust system in the bays and low-voltage wiring for the telephone system.Adding those items would bring the cost of construction to $1,719,000, he said.The cost to put in utilities has gone up by $34,000 since the original estimate because utilities were not properly stubbed to the property, said Dan Kupferer. “We just found out there’s no gas service to the property.”To reduce costs, Harwig said the district has some options: Make the building smaller, remove the dormers above the bays, use siding instead of stucco on the exterior or put the exhaust system in later when there’s money in the budget.”We would’ve liked to build a training and meeting room as part of the new fire station, but we had to take it off to get our building within budget,” Harwig said.Harwig also is trying to get the Pikes Peak Regional Building Dept. to tone down its landscape requirements.”We’re reforesting Woodmen Hills with this plan,” Harwig said. “If we could get them to back down on some of that, it’s going to help.”At the suggestion of fire district board member Richard Martin, the board decided to bring The Copestone Co. and Hammers Construction in for another round of interviews, with the goal of getting bids from both contractors that include all the items the district wants.Senior center updateIn a separate interview, Harwig discussed the building of the Falcon Senior Services senior center on the same 5-acre site as the new fire station.”When we showed the senior center on the plot plan, it created a little bit of a stir,” Harwig said.”I think it’s a great idea, and I like the idea of working with them. If it gives them an opportunity to do what they’ve been trying to do for the community as well, I’m all for it.”So, we wanted to show the senior center on the plan. We just have no clue when it will happen. It’s going to be 100 percent funded by them, not us. In talking to the county, they said we don’t need to show the pad for the senior center at this time.” He said the plans for the senior center will be eliminated from future versions of the overall plan.”If they [Falcon Senior Services] don’t do it in eight years or whatever, and we need the building and we have the funds, then we’ll do it ourselves, but I’d rather use their money because it saves me money,” Harwig said.Bev Ordon, founder of Falcon Senior Services, said the group needs a permanent senior center so they can expand their programs.”Right now, we have to carry everything everywhere we go. It would be nice to be able to leave things in one place,” Ordon said. “If you ever were a Girl Scout leader, you’d know what I’m talking about.”She said her group is still raising funds for the 6,000-square-foot building. “We just did a Tupperware party, and we’ve written our legislators asking them for some help but haven’t heard back from them,” Ordon said.When they’ve raised enough money, they’ll approach organizations that provide grants, such as the El Pomar Foundation. “El Pomar matches whatever you got from someone else, so we need to save them ’til last,” she said.Ordon estimated the cost of the building at about $500,000.To save on construction costs, the group is considering an unfinished building. “Then our people will do the finish work on the inside. That will save us some money,” she said.Once the building is constructed, Ordon said the group plans to rent rooms to the public for events, such as anniversary, graduation and birthday parties.
