LOWER MERION \u2013 Lower Merion commissioners have put a hold on renovation plans at one of the township\u2019s fire stations after the bids came in about $1 million over estimates.<\/p>\n
Now, township officials say they will look for alternatives to help move the project further. <\/p>\n
During the December board meeting, the commissioners approved a motion to follow the township staff\u2019s recommendation to vote against the project. <\/p>\n
Before the vote, the issue was discussed in more detail at a meeting of the township\u2019s finance committee, where Adam Szumski, chief financial officer for Lower Merion, presented the township staff\u2019s recommendation. <\/p>\n
Szumsik described the work at the fire station as improving overnight accommodations for firefighters and the ground-floor layout to better accommodate larger emergency vehicles. Details were also written into the staff memo to the commissioners. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2022, an internal committee of the Union Fire Association\u2019s Board of Directors began to investigate the feasibility of modifying the station to better serve the community,\u201d according to a staff memo. \u201cThe Association Board noted significant changes to the fire company\u2019s operations since the original construction of the station, such as the advent of larger, motorized fire apparatus, as well as the transition from all\u2010volunteer staffing to a \u201ccombination\u201d model with career firefighters staffing the station continuously. They also identified an urgent need to improve overnight accommodations for both career and volunteer firefighters, and to create facilities necessary to accommodate semipermanent \u201clive\u2010in\u201d firefighters. The Association concluded that the station\u2019s existing second floor social hall should be converted to accommodate both bunk rooms and living facilities for both volunteers and career firefighters. In addition, the Association proposed significant changes to the building\u2019s ground floor layout, including improvements to the station\u2019s engine room to better accommodate larger, modern emergency vehicles.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bids from potential contractors for the work came back in November at over $3.1 million or about $1 million over estimates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bids came back about a million dollars over that estimate at just over $3 million,\u201d Szumski said. \u201cSo in order to award such a contract, the township would have to make up that million-dollar difference. We are recommending at this time to reject bids and authorize potential further reduction to the scope \u2013 pause the project until the budget deficit can be bridged with other funding sources or alternative options are found.\u201d <\/p>\n
During the committee meeting, Brandon Ford, assistant township manager, said the rejection of the bids still leaves Lower Merion with options, including potentially rebidding at a later time or revisiting the project\u2019s scope.<\/p>\n
Rob Carovillano, deputy chief with the Union Fire Association of Bala Cynwyd, told the board, \u201cOur firehouse has existed in near its current form for over 120 years. In that time, the township has supported us with ongoing renovations as we moved from horse-drawn fire buggies to modern fire apparatus. While this project did start with the need for living quarters for volunteer firefighters, our needs didn\u2019t end there. We\u2019ve had our engine bay floor subsiding into the ground for several years.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Carovillano, there is a steel plate from the township that prevents their trucks from sinking into the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding world-class live-in quarters for volunteer firefighters,\u201d he added. \u201cNo one is going to want to live there with the rest of the firehouse in the condition it is right now. We\u2019ve also committed substantial time and effort from our volunteers out raising money for this project. And while I recognize that we didn\u2019t meet our goals, we are to this day raising more funds for this project. Not only is rejecting this project demoralizing to us, but then we have to analyze what can we do with those funds we\u2019ve raised that were dedicated to this project.\u201d <\/p>\n
At their final meeting in December, the commissioners voted in support of the township staff\u2019s recommendation to reject the current bids. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 Lower Merion commissioners have put a hold on renovation plans at one of the township\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[182,28,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-78312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}