Rohnert Park to redesign third firehouse, delaying completion until at least 2021

The Rohnert Park City Council directed staff Tuesday to scale back the size and cost of a long-delayed fire station on the city’s western side, steps that will delay its planned 2020 opening for another one to two years.

In an attempt to cut costs, staff on Tuesday asked the council to allow spending $210,000 more to redesign the 6,100-square-foot firehouse planned at the corner of an extension of Martin and Labath avenues.

The idea is for the architect to scale the project back by about 1,000 square feet by dumping frills, including a lobby, second office and fourth bedroom, as well as some of the building’s decorative exterior features.

The station could be completed by the summer of 2021, but may also be delayed until the following year, City Manager Darrin Jenkins said.

Work on a new firehouse in the county’s third-largest city was supposed to begin this past spring, but ran into yet another delay after the price tag for construction came back much higher than expected. In February, prospective builders of the project returned bids as much as 70 percent over the city’s $4 million budget for the project.

City staff initially blamed higher-than-anticipated costs on the rush on workers from the region-wide fire rebuild effort, as well as additional tightening of the labor market from the Bay Area’s construction boom. A closer analysis showed that many of the nine construction bids relied on estimates from a small group of subcontractors for electrical work, fire protection and landscaping, resulting in a process that was not as competitive as the city had hoped.

The majority of the council Tuesday authorized staff to redesign the west side fire station, a need that was first identified in 2000 and more seriously considered since 2008 to meet the city’s growing population. However, some council members expressed concern that construction costs will only continue to rise, wiping out potential savings from building a smaller facility.

“It’s definitely a need. The problem that I have though is there’s too much ambiguity as to where we’re at and what’s going to happen,” said Councilwoman Gina Belforte. “And if it’s true the costs are going to go up, then I would say come up with something quickly that is smaller that could get done, but then we don’t know if we could man it.”

Jenkins said the city continues to struggle with staffing shortages within its unique Department of Public Safety, which provides police and fire service with a single force. The city has received a draft report of an outside consultant’s review of the department and expects to get final recommendations next week before presenting them to the council in August.

The consultant study did not look at the question of consolidating its firefighting services with a neighboring agency, Rohnert Park Fire Cmdr. Mike Bates confirmed. In the past, the city has considered a model that would share the west side station between Rohnert Park and the Rincon Valley Fire Protection District, he said. However, the city concluded the plan was not cost-effective, given the expansion needed to accommodate more crew at the future firehouse.

Jenkins told the council Tuesday that, lacking a crystal ball, he couldn’t say whether the department will have sufficient staffing to operate the station by 2021, but remains optimistic with increased recruitment strategies. Six vacancies must be filled to meet the needs at a future fire station. Jenkins said it is possible the city could fill those vacancies in three years.

Bates called the unanticipated construction cost hikes “a difficult pill to swallow,” but said the west side station must be completed within three years to meet the needs of residents. He’d hoped the city would just swallow the extra costs and start construction quickly, rather than delay and diminish the station in an uncertain attempt to save money.

“We need a third station in place by 2021, based on increasing call volumes of an average of 300 calls a year since 2013,” said Bates. “The city has the $2 million if they want to pay the costs (of the current design). I do fear the price is going to rise and this smaller station is going to cost the same or more than what was rejected.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler