So. New Berlin to hold meeting on fate of building
NEW BERLIN – The South New Berlin Fire Department is seeking input from the community to help determine the fate of its building.
The days on the 27-year-old building are numbered, according to department members. The department is currently facing a list of priority repairs – namely roof work – that are estimated to reach tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The question is whether costs of repairs are worth the investment or if the department is better off building new. Department members will hold an informational hearing at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 at the South New Berlin Fire Station. Resident in the South New Berlin Fire District are encouraged to attend.
“We have some structural issues that are going to need to be attended to, probably before the winter,” said department member Kevin Chrstian.
Christian also said that while cosmetic work recently done on the building has made it less of an eyesore in recent years, there are larger issues at hand.
“It looks nice; but structurally, we have a 27-year-old pole barn that’s failing. Our biggest concern is the trusses. They need to be replaced,” he said. “If you replace the trusses, then you need to open up the whole ceiling. Once you do that, you’re exposed to the weather and you have no ceiling over your walls. So even if it rains once, we would have to repair all our walls, and that would make it an even more expensive project.”
When built in 1988, the structure was predicted to last 20 years. In that time, the department hasn’t saved money for a new building which carries an estimated cost ranging from $2.5 million to $3 million.
However, the department doesn’t have the funds to make repairs, either, said Christian. What’s more, financing repairs to an old pole barn is likely to be a challenge. The deparment can creat a line in the budget to start saving for a new buidling, but that takes public approval through reforendum. Even so, it’s an option members hope to public attention this weekend.
Department members are seeking state and federal grants that could help; but with most available grants being for equipment or infrastrucutre work, grants for a new building are hard to come by, Christian added.
Although the deparment doesn’t have a dinitive estimate for reapirs, early estimates are that it will cost taxpayers $80,000 just for building materials. That figure may go up if more damage is done to the walls in the construction process.
“Town folks may not understand how much money we have to put into our building now to repair it. We are not sure if people want to do that or just neglect it and go for a new buidling right away, even when there is no money right now to support it,” said department member Patricia Beadle. “What we’re asking the public is if they want to spend that kind of money to repair the building, even if it only lasts the next five or ten years, or if they want to invest in another building.”
The days on the 27-year-old building are numbered, according to department members. The department is currently facing a list of priority repairs – namely roof work – that are estimated to reach tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The question is whether costs of repairs are worth the investment or if the department is better off building new. Department members will hold an informational hearing at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 at the South New Berlin Fire Station. Resident in the South New Berlin Fire District are encouraged to attend.
“We have some structural issues that are going to need to be attended to, probably before the winter,” said department member Kevin Chrstian.
Christian also said that while cosmetic work recently done on the building has made it less of an eyesore in recent years, there are larger issues at hand.
“It looks nice; but structurally, we have a 27-year-old pole barn that’s failing. Our biggest concern is the trusses. They need to be replaced,” he said. “If you replace the trusses, then you need to open up the whole ceiling. Once you do that, you’re exposed to the weather and you have no ceiling over your walls. So even if it rains once, we would have to repair all our walls, and that would make it an even more expensive project.”
When built in 1988, the structure was predicted to last 20 years. In that time, the department hasn’t saved money for a new building which carries an estimated cost ranging from $2.5 million to $3 million.
However, the department doesn’t have the funds to make repairs, either, said Christian. What’s more, financing repairs to an old pole barn is likely to be a challenge. The deparment can creat a line in the budget to start saving for a new buidling, but that takes public approval through reforendum. Even so, it’s an option members hope to public attention this weekend.
Department members are seeking state and federal grants that could help; but with most available grants being for equipment or infrastrucutre work, grants for a new building are hard to come by, Christian added.
Although the deparment doesn’t have a dinitive estimate for reapirs, early estimates are that it will cost taxpayers $80,000 just for building materials. That figure may go up if more damage is done to the walls in the construction process.
“Town folks may not understand how much money we have to put into our building now to repair it. We are not sure if people want to do that or just neglect it and go for a new buidling right away, even when there is no money right now to support it,” said department member Patricia Beadle. “What we’re asking the public is if they want to spend that kind of money to repair the building, even if it only lasts the next five or ten years, or if they want to invest in another building.”
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