A planned new Aurora Fire Department headquarters could cost the city nearly $30 million, city staff said at a recent meeting.
Last June, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin announced the city’s plans to expand the site of the current police department headquarters into a public safety campus that would also hold a new Aurora Fire Department headquarters. Last month, the Aurora City Council’s Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee approved resolutions establishing a public safety campus subdivision and setting a plan for the site.
The building is expected to be two stories, roughly 29,800 square feet and hold four bay doors for the building’s fire prevention side, according to past reporting. Significant site work is also expected, including new parking areas, entrances and exits to the site and a plaza.
On Monday, city staff brought forward two more resolutions related to the project: one to approve the $29.5 million construction of the new Aurora Fire Department headquarters, and another that roughly doubles the dollar amount of a contract with Cordogan Clark of Aurora, IL for architectural, design, engineering and construction services to a total cost of around $2.2 million.
Both resolutions were delayed for two weeks by the Aurora City Council’s Infrastructure and Technology Committee at its meeting Monday because aldermen wanted more information.
Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kaufman told the committee that the contract with Cordogan Clark was increasing because the amount was negotiated as a percentage of the construction cost, which rose from an original estimation of around $15.5 million to its currently proposed amount because of inflation and the scale of the project. The scale increased in part, he said, because a space for the Aurora Emergency Management Agency was added to the proposed building.
“The fire station is anticipated to last 50 to 70 years, and our department’s staff has done a tremendous amount of work ensuring that the needs and growth of the department and city are accounted for without needless spending occurring,” Kaufman said at the meeting.
But Ald. Ted Mesiacos said that, without being provided a floor plan of the building, it is hard to say whether the increase in costs make sense. In addition to being the city’s 3rd Ward alderman, Mesiacos is also a practicing architect.
“I know prices have gone up, but even based on what I’m experiencing with my office, that’s a huge leap,” he said.
Mesiacos also took issue with the city’s original contract with Cordogan Clark, which he said was not industry standard.
“I had a concern with the process from the get-go. My concerns are coming to light,” Mesiacos said. “We don’t have enough information in this docket for me, on my end, to keep moving forward.”
According to Aurora’s Chief Financial Officer Chris Minick, the costs were based on the actual bids the city received to do the construction work.
When asked by current Alderman at-large and Mayor-elect John Laesch, Kaufman said he was “very comfortable” with the plan as it currently exists. The Aurora Fire Department’s staff has gone through the plans as an organization and even pulled out about $500,000 of work they believed was unnecessary, he said.
The new headquarters building will also act as a new fire station, replacing the current Fire Station 4 at 800 Michels Ave., which Kaufman said is “fantastic” from the perspective of supplying good service to the community. A previous study found that the upper northeast quadrant of the city was lacking in fire station access, he said, and this move is part of the plan to fix that problem.
Last year, Aurora Fire Chief David McCabe told The Beacon-News that the new Aurora Fire Department headquarters’ location will be helpful both because the new Fire Station 4 will be in a better spot to cover a larger part of the city, which will help to reduce response times, and because it will make it easier for the police and fire departments to communicate with each other.
For the Aurora Emergency Management Agency, this location is also best, according to Emergency Management Coordinator Natalie Wiza. It has easy access and the utilities to sustain its operations “whether it’s long-term response or long-term recovery so we can put Aurora back together when there’s an impact,” she said.
In addition to space for the Emergency Management Agency, the new Aurora Fire Department headquarters is expected to also have office space for the Aurora Emergency Medical Agency, according to past reporting.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
