An Aurora City Council committee this week recommended about a $3.9 million contract for a construction manager for three new fire station buildings in the city.
Aldermen on the Infrastructure and Technology Committee recommended the contract with Hoffman Estates-based Leopardo Construction, Inc. to oversee the projects to build new fire stations 4, 9 and 13.
The full City Council still needs to vote on the contract.
Leopardo was chosen after nine firms responded to a request for proposals from the city. A committee from the city staff reviewed the proposals received and whittled them down to three finalists.
Leopardo was chosen from those three after the city interviewed all the firms, officials said.
Going into the interviews, Leopardo was ranked third, and Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, questioned how they were chosen.
Chris Minick, the city’s finance director, said the company moved up during the interviews.
“As sometimes happens, they kind of wowed the team,” Minick said. “They came across in the interview much better.”
Fire Station 4, currently at 800 Michels Ave., needs more than $500,000 in maintenance work during the next five years to remain operational, fire department officials have said. So it is planned to build a new Fire Station 4 as part of a new planned public safety campus next to the Aurora Police Department building on Indian Trail just west of Farnsworth Avenue.
Fire Station 4 also will include a new Aurora Fire Department headquarters.
A study from several years ago that looked at the ideal placement of fire stations throughout the city showed the best spot for Fire Station 4 was just northeast of where the new location is planned.
That study also prompted plans to move other stations, such as Fire Station 9, on Diehl Road. It will go in a new building planned along Eola Road near Liberty Street.
Fire Station 13 will be a new building at Bilter Road and Nan Street, north of Interstate 88.
According to fire department officials, the goal in moving and constructing new stations is to get response times below six minutes for regular fire responses and four minutes for emergency medical responses.
As construction manager, Leopardo would work with two different architects, as well as whatever construction companies are chosen for the project when they are bid.
FGM Architects, of Chicago, has been chosen to design Stations 9 and 13, and Cordogan Clark, of Aurora, is designing Fire Station 4.
But the projects all have to bid yet, so the final construction costs and the construction companies are unknown.
slord@tribpub.com
