City picks Omaha firm for design

A firm from Omaha has been chosen to design a city fire station at the former West Ward School property.

The McCook City Council Monday night at its regular meeting unanimously approved city staff's recommendation of Prochaska and Associates and directed staff to negotiate an agreement with the firm.

A contract later will be presented to the council for approval.

McCook City Fire Chief Harpham told the council that city staff consisting of himself, City Clerk Lea Ann Doak and City Manager Kurt Fritsch rated 10 proposals submitted from architectural firms.

The top three firms were forwarded to the City Council in their city council packet along with city staff's recommendation of Prochaska, Fritsch said today.

The other two companies in the top three were Hoefer Wysocki Architects from Kansas City and Cannon Mass Brygger and Associates of Grand Island, he added.

Harpham told the council that firms who submitted proposals all came with excellent qualifications.

Fritsch agreed and said city staff ultimately ranked Prochaska at the top because of their exceptional design experience with other fire stations in Nebraska, past track record of completing projects on time and their reasonable costs.

Prochaska has designed nine other fire stations, including those in Omaha, Millard and Bellevue.

Fritsch added that according to preliminary costs, the city would be looking at about $100 per square foot.

In a proposed management plan submitted by Prochaska, the fire station would be about 13,680 gross square feet. A proposed timeline has construction beginning in November and finishing in October 2010.

As part of contracting with Prochaska, Jeff Tidyman, president of Engineering International in Curtis, would be working on the project as the local "eyes and ears" of the project as the construction phase manager.

The design for the fire station and selected architect are contingent on whether the city receives a grant from the Assistance to Firefighters grant program. About $210 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will be used for grants to modify, upgrade or construct non-federal fire stations.

Deadlines for grant applications are sometime in June or July. The city would know if it received the grant by late summer or early fall.

In response to a question by citizen Mark Hankins, Fritsch and Harpham clarified the design is for a fire station only and not a dispatching center or police department.