The Hartwell City Council approved $5.6 million in funding for the construction of a new Hartwell firehouse, during their regular meeting on June 5 at City Hall.
At the meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson and City Manager Jon Herschell presented the council with final cost estimates for the project.
“Jon and [Fire] Chief [Alan] Daniels, and just the whole crew, have really been working to get us some hard numbers on the proposed new firehouse,” Johnson said. “We are estimating, with about $200,000 in contingency funds, we’re looking at $5.6 million.
“It is going to be a fantastic, steel-framed, very nice fire department that is largely going to match City Hall.”
The new firehouse will also include a back entrance for firetrucks to use when returning home from calls.
“It’s going to not only be more efficient and handle our truckload in-and-out, but there will be no more of this stopping and backing in,” Johnson said. “All of that is going to go away.”
The back entrance will be cut in off of Benson Street and will wrap around the property.
The building will be a one-story structure with a front facade built to give a more impressive, two-story look. The new firehouse will also be equipped with four bays to house trucks and equipment.
“It’s a big improvement from two bays,” Johnson said. “Currently, we have a bunk room, not bunk rooms, and so [there will be] a lot more privacy for these gentlemen, and obviously, if a female firefighter joins the force, that is going to be highly important.
“It’s going to be something we can show off to the community and do field trips and all sorts of things, so it’s time.”
The original estimate for the firehouse came in at just over $6 million.
“We kind of challenged them to get it down,” Herschell said. “There are 16 divisions, and we went through each division item, line-by-line, and we trimmed off $419, 084.35.”
This brought the final, guaranteed, price down to $5,639,182.
“We’re ready to get going.,” Herschell said. “I challenged the fire chief today to get things out of there, and to get things ready to move because we’re about to start moving towards construction.”
The building is expected to stand the test of time and last for more than 50 years.
“This is going to be a steel-framed, brick masonry [structure],” Herschell said. “It’s going to be built in a very similar manner to City Hall.
“Structurally wise, there are rooms in there designed to withstand tornadoes. It is going to be very soundly built.”
Herschell told the council that he expects to start grading on the property within the next 30 to 45 days.
Mayor Johnson acknowledged the fact that this is going to cause a big mess for people coming in and out of City Hall for the next year or so, and parking will be an issue at times, but the building should be completed within 18 to 24 months once the ground is broken.
Councilman Tray Hicks wanted to extend a thank you to the fire department during the discussion on the funding.
“Many years ago when we took down [the old] City Hall [the fire department] was asked [to wait for a new building]. It would have put us in a bit of a spot if we would have tried to [build] both [City Hall and the firehouse] at the same time.
“The fire department, elected at that time, under Chief Terry Vickery, to just bear with what they had and to deal with it until this building, City Hall, became paid off.
“[City Hall] accomplished that not too long ago, so I want to make sure that they are acknowledged for that.
“With that I will make a motion to approve the [new] firehouse at $5.6 million.”
The motion was seconded by Councilman Bill Leard, and was carried unanimously.