The Platteville Common Council is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on the design of the new fire station.
Between Tuesday’s special council meeting and next Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting, the council is expected to decide between two alternatives:
•A $12.5 million building on property to be determined in the Platteville Industry Park.
•A $14.5 million building on the city-owned O.E. Gray School property plus additional land to be purchased west of the school property.
The expanded O.E. Gray site was either recommended or at least supported by all seven townships that are part of the fire district, according to city manager Clint Langreck.
The O.E. Gray lot would be expanded by purchasing properties to the west to allow fire trucks to exit onto the wider West Adams Street that is part of Wisconsin 81, instead of West Adams east of North Chestnut Street to build a 28,881-square-foot one-story fire station by purchasing property to the west.
The Industry Park option would build a 28,881-square-foot one-story fire station for $12.5 million.
Industry Park property became an option due to the compromises of the O.E. Gray site as fire station planners sought to reduce the initial estimate of $15.5 million to $18.4 million, depending on which options were added, for the original 32,525-square-foot proposal.
The downside of an Industry Park site is that on Platteville’s south side it is far from the center of the fire district in terms of geography, fire calls and where firefighters live, which is likely to increase fire response time. The Industry Park site would also take away taxable property for future economic development.
The two options won out over two other O.E. Gray proposals — a slimmed-down 26,535-square-foot version of the initial two-story proposal, estimated to cost $12.48 million, and a 29,164-square-foot one-story proposal, estimated to cost $13.39 million.
Those two plans would have most of the building on the southeast corner of the property, with fire trucks exiting onto West Adams east of North Chestnut because of the slope of the property and because the fence on the O.E. Gray property is part of the properties to the west.
According to city documents, the expanded O.E. Gray site was recommended by the towns of Elk Grove, Ellenboro, Harrison, Lima, Platteville and Smelser, and supported by the Town of Belmont.
The Industry Park site was recommended by the Town of Belmont and supported by Elk Grove, Harrison and the Town of Platteville, but opposed by the other townships.
The smaller one-story O.E. Gray option was supported only by Ellenboro and Harrison. None of the townships supported the two-story O.E. Gray option.
The council also will decide whether to add a seventh apparatus bay, estimated at almost $400,000, and a basement, estimated at $2.6 million.
The townships all either recommended or supported the seventh apparatus bay, but opposed the basement addition.
The original $15.5 million proposal included seven drive-through apparatus bays, decontamination facilities, administrative offices, a 60-person training room, a kitchen, space for a city emergency operations center, and future room for a dormitory should the Fire Department hire full-time firefighters.
The proposals involve the city’s borrowing $3 million to $3.5 million, the townships in the fire district borrowing $1 million to $1.5 million, and $1.5 million in fundraising. The city is receiving $7 million in a U.S. Department of Agriculture Congressionally Directed Grant toward the project.
The O.E. Gray site was chosen over the former National Guard Armory in the feasibility study by Public Administration Associates because the latter site would have required building a three-story building.
The city purchased the O.E. Gray site for $1 from the Platteville School District in 2019. Earlier this year the city moved the Platteville Senior Center, which had been located in the O.E. Gray building, to the Municipal Building.
Construction on the new fire station is expected to start next fall. The city is planning on spending $12.5 million on a fire station in next year’s Capital Improvement Plan.
