Work on fire hall starts next month

The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell is one step closer to building its new fire station at the north end of the city.

The Kalispell City Council on Monday night awarded a $2.32 million contract to Martel Construction of Bigfork to build the station.

Martel was the low bidder; other bidders were Swank Enterprises and Kramer Enterprises.

That figure does not include "soft costs" such as furniture and other items that will go into the new station, Fire Chief Randy Brodehl said.

Voters last November passed a $3 million bond request to pay for the station.

Construction will begin in June and the station should open in February 2006. Six new firefighters will staff the station.

The station will be behind the new Costco store south of Lowe's. A new road will connect the station to U.S. 93 where a traffic light will be installed this summer.

The road will line up with a street that is to be built as part of Hutton Ranch Plaza, a movie theater and shopping center proposed for the eastern side of U.S. 93 between Target and Flathead Valley Community College.

The station will be more than 12,000 square feet and will have room for three apparatus bays and living quarters for eight people. Training devices include a tower as well as a mezzanine from which firefighters can rappel. The building also will have a hole into which firefighters can descend to practice rescues from confined spaces.

Grover and Co. of Whitefish designed the building, which will be called Fire Station No. 62. This is the first fire station owner and architect Chad Grover has designed.

He said he hired a Cincinnati company with expertise in fire station architecture to assist him in the planning.