With work well underway on the new building designed to house fire trucks and other equipment, the bills have started to come in.
At Monday night’s meeting of the Elgin City Council, members discussed the progress being made and the means to pay for the new building which should be completed by September.
Joined at the meeting by Bob Moser representing the Elgin Rural Fire Board, both parties agreed to split payments 50/50 as they come in.
Taylor Went, representing Advanced Consulting Engineering Service, turned in an application for payment in the amount of $35,360. He said it represents 12 percent of the completed costs of the project. Of that amount, nearly $30,000 is for concrete. Both the Rural Fire Board and the City of Elgin will pay $17,680 of that amount.
As for how the City’s going to pay their share, the council voted 4-0 to borrow the necessary money (more than $100,000) from the Bank of Elgin. The length of the loan will be seven years. The remainder of the funds necessary to pay for the fire building will be taken from city sales tax funds and from donations. The total cost for the fire building is well over $300,000.
Went also updated council members on several other issues. They were:
Flashing red light — After consulting with the State Department of Roads, Went said they will not allow a flashing light to be installed on Highway 14 to control traffic when there are fire and rescue calls.
Street paving projects — Went gave city officials cost estimates for five possible street paving projects. They were Fifth Street from Beech to Maple; Maple Street from Fourth to Fifth; Cedar Street from Fifth to Fourth; Cedar Street from Fifth to Fourth; and Third Street from Elm to Cedar. Costs would be paid by the City with a portion assessed to property owners. No action was taken on this matter as Mayor Mike Schmitt and the council needs to further review the projects. And, because of time constraints, the earliest the work could be done would be 2013.
