Renovations to the downtown Bloomington fire station damaged in 2021 flash floods are slated to begin next week.
The city’s Board of Public Works on Tuesday unanimously approved four contracts on the project totaling about $4.5 million.
The contracts are as follows:
- Fox Construction in the amount of $2.5 million
- Reed and Sons in the amount of $459,000
- Harrell Fish, Inc. in the amount of $1.2 million
- Electric Plus in the amount of $465,000
The downtown station, also known as Fire Station #1, is located at 300 E. Fourth St. That building and another fire station at 810 N. Woodlawn Ave., or Fire Station #3, were both damaged by flooding.
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Bloomington Fire Chief Jason Moore said he expects renovations to be finished by October 2024.
Meanwhile, Fire Station #3 is entering the engineered drawing phase, and bids aren’t likely to come until mid-2024, according to Moore. That means renovations to that station are likely a while out.
The Bloomington police station on Third Street also was damaged in the 2021 floods. The city plans to sell that building for an estimated $3.2 million.
Plans to remodel Fire Station #1 and #3 and to construct a fire department training and logistics center are included in a list of proposed public safety projects totaling roughly $34 million.
That list also includes the Showers West project, which seeks to move fire administration and the police department into the west part of city hall. The city hall building used to be a Showers Brothers factory building.
Read more: As push to move Bloomington police, fire advances, officials sound alarm
Last week, Mayor-elect Kerry Thomson sent a letter to Mayor John Hamilton asking him to not make any more strategic decisions that will have an impact beyond the end of 2023.
Thomson told WFIU/WTIU the letter was prompted by the Showers West project.
Hamilton wrote in a letter responding to Thomson’s that he considers her request inappropriate and impossible.
The project’s future remains somewhat unclear. Council members are scheduled to discuss the project in more detail on Dec. 4.
