Cleveland to build second fire station

As the Cleveland area continues to see growth, so grows the necessity for more services around the community, especially those concerning public safety. Tuesday night, the Cleveland City Council decided just that and awarded a $5.138 million bid to LDF Construction for a new fire station. That facility will be the second in Cleveland and will be constructed on a piece of land donated by the McKinley Development group at the entrance to Grand Oaks Reserve.
The new facility will be located on Grand Oaks Parkway behind the Parkway Market at the entrance to the subdivision on HWY 321 at the HWY 105 bypass.
The city received 10 packages for sealed bid proposals, but only nine were submitted before the deadline for those bids. The contractor bids ranged from $4.89 to $5.8 million. The bids are then reviewed for not only the amount submitted but the qualifications of the contractors submitting the proposals. LDF Construction was proposed to the council for their experience constructing other fire stations, and it was felt they were the best option by representatives from BRW Architects
Mayor Richard Boyett called into question why the higher bid was recommended, citing his preference to select the lowest bid.
“Based on the questions we asked, where we found that they just didn’t provide any documentation to relevant experience, which we would find in fire station and municipal type projects. Their resume was basically schools,” said Lisa Andel of BRW
City Manager Bobby Pennington spoke highly of the recommendation and the experience LDF has working on this particular type of project.
“I think it’s a great recommendation. LDF has done a lot of fire stations,” said Pennigton.
Boyett continued to raise some objections on taking the higher bid, to which Ray Holiday from BRW argued that not only were they the most qualified bid, but they followed the specs laid out by architects, where other bidders did not.
“Going forward, I just want to see it done right,” said City Councilman Danny Lee.
After quite a bit of discussion, Boyett again echoed his argument and stated his case that the city could do a lot with the savings of $200,000. Finally, Councilman James Franklin made a motion, and Councilwoman Marilyn Clay seconded; with the motion, the council approved the bid to LDF.
Most of the funds will come from bond money, with a portion coming from the city’s fund balance.