Oskaloosa, Iowa – “The construction and renovation project for the Oskaloosa Fire Station is on track”, says Fire Chief Mark Neff.

The updates were passed by Oskaloosa voters in November of 2014, to the tune of 3.2 million dollars, that would include enlarging the current station, as well as some rehabilitation of the current station that was built in 1909.

When the project went out to bid, contractors returned bids for the project that were approximately 1 million dollars more than projected.

Some of those changes to reduce costs include not adding the elevator equipment, but still having the shaft for the elevator built; the other is to not convert the third floor room where the band currently practices into a community room.

The biggest cosmetic change to the structure, because of projected cost overrun, was to move to a sloped roof instead of the initially proposed hip roof.

With those initial challenges in construction cost now settled, and the project scheduled to come in for the amount voters approved, construction is now well underway.

Neff took Oskaloosa News on a tour of the station and the construction site, in order to help update us about the progress of construction thus far.

The elevator shaft for the facility is being constructed for future use. The elevator shaft will remain empty until such time when the city installs the elevator car and it becomes necessary.

One of those interesting side-effects of rebidding the project was finding a way to get the newest fire truck into the original building. The truck was ordered before the project was initially delayed because of the cost.

When the truck arrived, it was too tall to fit through the original doors. As construction was taking place, concrete was already being removed, so firefighters dug out an area near the door to allow the newest truck to fit inside the old station.

After considerable infrastructure work, such as sewer lines, construction crews have now installed steel columns and the building will start to go vertical in a relatively short amount of time from this point on.

It’s planned that the new addition will be housing the fire trucks in February of 2017, and the remodel of the original station should be completed by the fall of 2017.

Story provided by Osky News