There was a collective intake of breath Tuesday morning when Fort Scott-based architect Rick Zingre presented Allen County commissioners with the proposed cost for the scheduled ambulance stations in Humboldt and Moran.
With each building slated to cost the county a crisp $452,000 as opposed to the anticipated $300,000 commissioners sent Zingre back to the drawing board in search of a more digestible figure.
Zingres revised plan will entail a handful of cutbacks, and will be less ambitious overall closer to the original 2,400-square-foot idea as opposed to the architects 3,000-square-foot upgrade but the concession appeared to pass muster with Iola Fire Chief Tim Thyer and EMS director Mike Burnett, both of whom have been involved in the conception of the two ambulance barns and both of whom were at Tuesdays meeting.
In other metal barn news, commissioners voted to accept a bid for $176,178 from Waverly Lumber for the construction of the new Allen County Rural Fire Station, pending final contract approval from the commissions legal counsel. A one-acre area at the corner of State Street and Oregon Road has already been donated to the volunteer group for the purposes of installing the metal building, and the county has agreed to clear the site of overgrowth and debris and put down gravel before construction begins in the coming months.
Finally, theres been movement on the hog barn in Riverside Park. After fruitlessly soliciting repair bids from area contractors late last month, representatives from the Allen County Fair Association told commissioners on Tuesday that, yes, finally, the bids are beginning to trickle in.
After discussion of the two ambulance barns in Humboldt and Moran, the rural fire barn in Iola, and the hog barn at the county fairgrounds, it was kind of a letdown when school board member Jen Taylor, in her capacity as Bowlus Fine Arts Center trustee, showed up to the meeting and failed to even mention the word barn. Instead, she invited county commissioners to assume a seat on the Bowlus Commission an invitation the commissioners accepted, naming Commissioner Bruce Symes to the seat.
