Plans continue for the remodel of the Towncenter building that currently houses the Bella Vista Police and Fire Departments as well as City Hall.
During its Jan. 23 regular session, the Bella Vista City Council took the next step in moving that project forward by voting unanimously to pass a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a contract with Bentonville-based Clinard Construction Management to oversee what will be a remodel in three phases, according to that company's president.
"We looked at this seven years ago to see if it would be feasible," Mark Clinard told the City Council during its work session held Jan. 17. "This was when all the public service facilities were being discussed and designed. Ultimately that resulted in the public safety complex that's going in. This is kind of the next step in the process, to take those existing buildings and create a central fire station that's up to the standards of meeting the equipment needs and the personnel needs. It's probably way past due."
The building will end up housing an expanded Fire Station No. 1 and will continue to serve as the location of City Hall, an idea that has changed since Mayor John D. Flynn took over for Peter Christie on Jan. 1.
"Basically the prior mayor had the idea of moving City Hall to (the District Court Building in Village Center) and refurbishing where we're sitting right now," Flynn told the Council during the work session. "My concern with that was the estimate of refurbishing this area was $200,000 and it's somebody else's building and we would pay rent versus staying where you are and not spending $200,000 and paying no rent. So that's why City Hall is staying where it is."
Clinard, whose company served in the construction management position of two other Bella Vista fire stations -- Fire Station No. 4 and the recently-completed Fire Station No. 3 -- said now that the contract has been approved his group will begin the process of bringing in consultants for the architecture and engineering aspects.
"(We'll need to) corral those people to stick to a budget and a design that's fitting for the city and a budget for a city of this size," he said. "That's what we've done on the other projects we've worked on and both of those came in on budget and on time."
Once BVPD moves out of the building and into its new location on Forest Hills Boulevard, and the architects and engineers are in place, work can begin on the portion of the building previously occupied by BVPD.
"We can't simply go in and boot everyone out because they're operating every day out of that station," Clinard said. "The idea would be to start on the two-story structure that the police are occupying right now and convert that into living quarters for the fire fighters."
The construction teams will then turn their attention to the middle portion of the building.
"The second phase will be to build two or three apparatus bays that will have the size, scope and scale to accommodate the new fire equipment that's out there," he said.
Part of that will include upgrading the bay doors to provide better access for the vehicles that will be rolling into and out of the bays.
"The old bays have 12' x 12' doors and there is equipment that barely fits through those doors," Clinard said. "Somebody forgets and leaves something up on top of one of (the fire engines) then you take out a door. So we'll have 14' x 14' doors and higher ceilings like the newer facilities. And then ultimately on phase three we would take the old fire station building and either modify or enlarge it. Somehow it would get incorporated into phase three. It may become part offices or part support services."
He added, "These phases have to be done end to end to end because we'll be building and finishing out and then moving personnel or moving equipment into each phase as it finishes."
When asked by Councilman Larry Wilms why having a construction manager would benefit the city and this project, Clinard answered, "Is your budget limited or unlimited? Because when you hire architects and engineers and let them run on their own they will design the Ferrari-style facility.
"Springdale is the perfect example of that," he continued. "We actually had three fire stations down there. They had $9 million for three fire stations. I told the mayor at the time that we would build all three for $8 million and give (the city) $1 million back to buy equipment or what have you. They ended up spending $12 million for two fire stations all in, I think -- nobody really wants to say what the final numbers were -- and they hired an architect out of California to work in conjunction with a local architect and it was ridiculous the amount of money they spent."
The first payment for the project, which is already included in the city's 2023 budget, is a pre-construction fee of $30,000, or $6,000 a month for the first five months.
"That will get us from today to hopefully in six months or less to where we're ready with sets of plans -- at least on phase one -- with a master plan outlining what we're going to do in the subsequent phases for the entire project. It gets us from selecting an architect and all the way through the design phase."
Clinard said one of the most important aspects of his role in managing the construction will be to make sure the project stays on budget.
"The first and most important effort is to determine what you want to spend and determine who's going to do it and then we make sure they do their job," he told the Council "Our job is to control how much money you spend. So you tell us, 'This is the amount of money we want to spend.' I might tell you that's not realistic in this day and time, but I will tell you what is a reasonable budget and we'll stick to it and we'll make sure the architects and engineers stay within budget instead of you all having to raise extra money to pay for what the architects and engineers come up with."
As for how long the project should take to complete, Clinard said, "I don't have a clue about the time frame, because we may do the first phase and then there be a gap depending on how the City Council funds this project. It could take 18 months or two to three years, depending on how fast we want to move it along. I know the fire chief and assistant fire chief want to move this along as quickly as possible because every day we're seeing prices go up on things, so we want to get everything locked in and get this done as quickly as possible."
Clinard said the remodel will be helped by the fact the two-story portion (southern end) of the building won't have to be completely gutted -- "I like to say it has 'good bones,'" he said -- while the cost will be helped by keeping City Hall in place.
"Keeping the existing City Hall is a big help," he said. "So (the mayor) has already saved us some money right there by doing that. So I think we're off to a good start in that regard."
Clinard said the building was built as Bella Vista's first fire station in 1969. "I think you've gotten your money's worth," he told the Council.