GRIFFIN — The Spalding County Board of Commissioners approved the bid of CPL Architects for the design of the new Fire Station 8, which will be located on Teamon Road in northeast Spalding County and provide needed fire and EMS coverage for the rapidly growing residential area.
CPL, an architectural and engineering firm located in Suwanee, had the low bid of $207,177 for the design. The design and construction of the new station will be funded out of the county’s impact fee fund.
Spalding County Fire Chief Mike Byrd explained to the BOC that the department received two bids for the station design.
“The bids were slightly different, but the services they offered were very similar,” he said. “In reviewing them, CPL provided a lower bid.”
Byrd added that they did some background checking on CPL.
“I called a couple of fire chief friends who they had done work for, and they were very complimentary of not only how efficient they were, but how effective they were in assisting with the designs and staying within the guidelines of the budget,” said Byrd. “My recommendation is to award the bid to CPL Architects for this project.”
Chairman Clay Davis said he had received calls from people who saw a rendering of Fire Station 8 in The Griffin Daily News, and that they were not complimentary about it.
Byrd stated the rendering was a proposal CPL submitted as a sample, but that there are no existing renderings of the station at this time.
“Currently the department has a station design team made up of firefighters, lieutenants, captains, and battalion chiefs, and they are looking at other fire stations recently built throughout the state and trying to find what will fit in that footprint well, which will make the county proud by the aesthetics side of it, too, but also is the most cost effective,” said Byrd.
“In their presentation, they (CPL) had to give apples to apples comparisons and come up with something,” he added. “But the understanding is that is not going to be what the fire station looks like when it is done.”
District 1 Commissioner Gwen Flowers-Taylor expressed concern over the scope of the design and that what was being proposed was more than what she expected.
“I know that when we talked and in the community meetings, we really need to have a community room so when people come we’re not in the truck bay, and there is not really a good meeting area on that side of town, so I’m fine with that,” said Flowers-Taylor.
“But when I look through this and I see that we’re looking to put in eight showers and a laundry room, two restrooms, and private sleeping areas for 14, my brain is like, ‘We only have two people that work (a shift). Why do we need to have them do a design for that many people? We’ll never have that many people.’ So I have a problem with asking them to do it this way.”
Byrd stated that when they came up with the specifications, they based it on future use, which would have four people per shift (The Fire Department works in three shifts.)
“The reason why the individual bunk rooms are there is that data shows that when you start having flu season, if you have someone who has their own private room, there is less transmission from one person to the most,” said Byrd.
“If the budget doesn’t allow for it, then most certainly we would scale it back, but we’re shooting to put four people per shift up there, which is a total of 12 people. We did try to add for future growth, but as we start moving forward, if we see that figure and the bunk rooms are unattainable, we will shift back and adjust accordingly.”
Flowers-Taylor asked how firefighters are sleeping in the other seven stations.
Byrd said it depends on the station.
“The five original stations had a common bunk room,” he said. “The Carver Road station is a little different, but it still is a common bunk room. We have since gone back and tried to give them some privacy, so we have built partitions. They do still share a space in stations 1 through 6.
“Station 7 is the newest of the stations, and it does have individual bunk rooms that the three people (per shift) share.”
A motion was made and seconded to approve the design bid. The vote was 3-1 in favor, with Davis and Commissioners James Dutton and Ryan Bowlden in favor, and Flowers-Taylor against.
New truck
The BOC also approved the fire department purchasing a new truck for the fire inspector/fire safety officer.
Chief Byrd advised commissioners that the fire inspector is currently driving a 2012 Ford Explorer, which has been handed down several times.
“It has about 140,000 miles,” said Byrd. “It was a hand-me-down. It started off as a battalion chief vehicle years ago and has been passed down a couple of times, and has seen its better days.
“Especially since he does respond to emergency calls, we’re trying to get him something a little newer and a little more reliable,” added Byrd. “Being a fire inspector and fire safety officer, he does carry a lot stuff with him, and it provides the room he needs to carry all of his tools for investigations and inspections.
“What we are asking for is to find money in our current budget to go back and purchase the vehicle.”
The 2025 Dodge Durango, bought under state contract, will cost $44,413. The lights and radio package will be an additional $13,935 for a total expense of $58,348. The funds will come from the fire department’s supplemental budget.
Flowers-Taylor stated she thought the funds would come from the county’s supplemental budget, adding she didn’t even know the fire department had its own supplemental budget.
County Manager Steve Ledbetter advised her that the fire department has a supplemental list of items not included in their budget that they can get if they save money in other areas.
“We do have money set aside for this in their supplemental,” he said. “They have not spent all of their Fiscal Year 2025 funding. They were very frugal with their budget money this year, so we do have the funds available in the fire fund for the purchase of this vehicle.”
A motion to approve the truck purchase was made and seconded. The vote was 4-0 in favor.
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