Site selection to begin for new fire station

Beatrice Fire and Rescue officials will begin to look at possible sites for a new fire station after the Beatrice Fire Department Building Committee agreed Wednesday night to have Southeast Community College architectural engineering students complete collateral materials for a new fire station.

The committee decided to look for possible building sites in Beatrice in order to participate in a free collateral material study by an SCC architectural engineering class.

The committee, with Beatrice City Council approval, decided last November to proceed with looking at building a new fire station.

The SCC architectural engineering class at Milford each year takes on a project to complete a set of collateral materials, which includes conceptual drawings, artist rendering, floor plans and site evaluation for buildings for non-profit or governmental entities, Mayor Dennis Schuster said. This is all done under the supervision of an architect.

“The nice thing about this is they’ll do it for free,” Schuster said. “I think it’s a pretty good deal.”

Typically, Schuster said, you would pay an architect $8,000 to $15,000 for this type of work.

The students would work with the committee and fire department members to complete the materials. These would all be materials needed when or if the city decides to have a bond election, he said.

Once the project was completed, if committee members like the plans, the city would then need to take them to an architect to complete the final drafts and be licensed to be used.

The class would begin the project in July.

In order to participate in this, Schuster said they would like the committee to select a few possible sites to be considered in their evaluation.

The committee had considered looking at placing the fire station bond on the November ballot. However, with the SCC project beginning in July and the possibility of other bond projects in the November election, it may be a good idea to hold off, Schuster said.

“Maybe it’s to our advantage to sit one out and see what happens,” he said.

He said this would allow for the committee to put together a good plan for a new fire station.