Hope - Progress Report

For almost a year and a half, I have been documenting the construction of our new headquarters fire station. Every few days (more or less) I have been making the trek downtown, climbing up the hose tower to the roof of the old station, standing at the exact same spot and snapping a photo of the new building.

Day 2 of construction. The site was a parking lot that was

created by A shift (I think) way way back in the day.

 

That the station is being built is a minor miracle in itself. Years were spent deciding on a location, A bond was issued, funding the construction of three other stations, a training facility and EOC.  It was hoped that the bond would fund this building as well, but it wasn't enough. Federal stimulus money came through and saved the project, which includes the station and administrative offices located on the top floor.

Fussing over construction details led to a significant delays mid-project, followed by the primary contractor suffering some sort of business crisis and stopping work on the project. Fortunately, the city requires that a performance bond be purchased by the contractor as part of the contract. Thus, when situations arise like this, the bonding company steps in and ensures that the work is performed and that everybody gets paid.

Holding Pattern - The new station spent many weeks looking

pretty much like this. Needless to say, I didn't take a lot of

photos during the pause.

Since the bonding company stepped in, work has been proceeding like gangbusters. Though I don't think things are completely back on schedule, tremendous progress has been made. They wisely kept the project super on board and I think they kept they subs. Regardless, work is progressing nicely.

This was taken a couple of weeks ago. The stucco, brickwork

and trim is complete, thus the scaffolding came down. The 

interior changes are equally as dramatic.

They, them, those people are talking about the station being ready to occupy by the end of the year. While I have no way to know whether that is a realistic deadline or not, I do know that things are moving along well.

As I never thought I'd see this building built, it is refreshing to see it coming along. I would have liked to work in it a shift or two as I spent quite a few years in the existing station #1. Obviously, that isn't going to happen so I will have to be content attending the grand opening ceremony when that occurs. That should be an exiting event.

I hope to have all of the photos put together like a time-lapse slide show, hopefully it can be shown at the grand opening.

As work progresses, it shows that hopes can be fulfilled if enough people work hard to persevere.  That and funding becomes available.

Thanks for reading,

Schmoe