Miami Township Fire-Rescue provided this rendering of the new fire station to be built at 1001 Xenia Ave., on the south side of town. The public groundbreaking ceremony will be Wednesday, Sept. 18, 11 a.m. (Rendering by MSA Architects, courtesy of Miami Township Fire-Rescue)
Fire house groundbreaking begins
- Published: September 15, 2019
“It’s been a long journey,” Miami Township Trustee Chair Chris Mucher said last week in announcing the success of the latest round of bids for construction of a new fire house on the south side of the village.
Inability to secure bids under the budget’s legal cap was the primary cause for a delay of over a year in starting construction for the $4.9 million project.
Groundbreaking will now move forward, with a public ceremony at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the station’s future site, 1001 Xenia Ave., Mucher announced at the start of the most recent Trustees meeting Wednesday, Sept. 4.
“This time next year we’ll be in a new fire house,” Mucher said.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a 2.4-mill 30-year bond levy in May 2017 to construct the new station on land formerly owned by Wright State University and occupied by Wright State Physicians. The township had purchased two acres of the Wright State property, the portion fronting Xenia Avenue, for $350,000 in October 2016.
Construction on the new station originally was projected to be completed last summer.
The effort was repeatedly stalled, however, when three separate attempts to bid out the project, each followed by design revisions to reduce costs, failed to attract a contractor who met budget requirements.
In April this year, the Trustees decided to take a different tack and change its approach toward bidding the project.
Instead of hiring a single contractor to oversee and complete the station, the township went directly to subcontractors for their bids on such individual features as plumbing, electric and roofing.
The following month, they began working with the architect, MSA Architects of Cincinnati, to reduce anticipated construction costs by another $300,000.
Bid packages were made available in August, and the township accepted bids from seven different subcontractors earlier this month, according to Mucher.
For the groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 18, members of the Miami Township Fire-Rescue will be on hand, along with department equipment. Festivities also will include a social time with refreshments.
Contact: csimmons@ysnews.com
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