The Upper Pine River Fire Protection District is waiting on finalized construction plans and to hammer out the financial logistics for its future dual fire station and urgent care clinic in Bayfield.
Deputy Fire Chief Greg French said initial construction plans are about 70% complete and slated to be finalized around mid-January.
“At that time, they’ll release the documents to us. Then we’ll have a couple months to review them,” he said. “We’ve got a couple folks in house who have building trades experiences, building construction experience.”
Fire Chief Bruce Evans said the department is trying to make sure the construction document specifications are as solid as possible and to prevent any expensive change orders.
“Those (change orders) get very expensive very quickly, and those can run up the cost on a public works program significantly if they’re not managed appropriately,” he said. “Let’s say that you decide to change the carpet or you decide to change some light fixtures, that would technically be a change order.”
In such scenarios, Evans said a contractor reserves the right to charge money, adding that some past public work projects in the area have seen $10,000 charges for a change order.
“You can see how that gets out of hand pretty quickly,” he said.
French said Upper Pine Fire looks to put the project out for bid with contractors this spring.
In November 2023, Bayfield voters approved extending a property tax that will help fund the new fire station and clinic. The department will relocate the fire station from 75 S. Clover Drive to a 2-acre lot at 297 Bayfield Center Drive, just north of the U.S. Highway 160 and County Road 501 intersection.
The new building, which is expected to last the next 70 years, will include a fire station, urgent care clinic and community space. It will staff physicians, a nurse, and a physician assistant or paramedic to provide care to the area’s underserved residents.
French said building a fire station is much different from building a typical residential property or something like a grocery store because the design deals with unique aspects like firefighters’ living, training and meal areas, plus the apparatus bay for equipment and a modern full-service clinic.
“It’s a unique structure as to serve a lot of needs,” he said.
French said the building design is also geared toward incorporating potential structural and apparatus expansion decades down the road as call volumes increase.
Upper Pine Fire is working with Denver-based OZ Architecture, which has received interest in the project from fellow contractors, according to French.
French said OZ Architecture, which Evans already has a working relationship with from his previous fire department tenures in North Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, has expertise building fire stations and the needs that come with building a structure that’s part residential and part industrial.
“They know a lot of the trends in the fire service. They know what works and what doesn’t work,” he said.
Upper Pine Fire received $800,000 in Department of Local Affairs Tier 2 grant money for the design project back in March 2024, which will make the fire station and clinic “shovel ready.”
The department is using that grant money to help pay for the design process and the documentation.
French said the estimated building cost is around $18 million, so Upper Pine Fire is pursuing additional grant money, loan financing and private financing options to help with construction costs.
Upper Pine Fire already acquired the land the property will be on. With more project revisions, French said the department is looking to cut down the aforementioned price tag a little bit, financing in the $15 million to $18 million range.
He also said the department is exploring grants for areas of the building such as the training room to help reduce the cost.
Evans said Upper Pine Fire is still in the application process with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the loan documentation. He said the department is in the process of pursuing a rural health clinic grant via the Health Resources and Services Administration. The time window to obtain that grant closes on Jan. 27.
Additionally, Evans said the state restrictions placed on oil and gas back in February 2024 “seriously handicapped” the amount of oil and gas tax revenue that would help pay for such a project. That’s why the department is looking at different grant and financing options to help pay for the project.
“A lot of moving parts on this thing,” he said.
The official timeline to start construction on the new building is up in the air because of the different funding sources, Evans said.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com