By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District may get its new home three months earlier than expected.
In its latest construction schedule to the Yachats Fire District Board, DSL Builders of Salem said it expects to finish the $8.3 million main fire station on the north edge of Yachats by Sept. 23 – three months early.
“We have a great crew and this is what we do,” DSL project superintendent Kevin Lindsted told YachatsNews.com
The project was plagued early by problems with the 6-acre site – moving a creek and unstable ground that required major changes to the 10,000-square foot foundation. But once those were addressed, work on the building has gone fast and well.
Lindsted said good weather in December allowed them to pour 650 yards of concrete for the foundation.
“That’s how we made up a lot of time,” he said. “Once we got that done nothing was stopping us.”
Because of the unexpected costs – about $800,000 – in dealing with site problems, the board made numerous adjustments to save money, including postponing constructing a 2,250-square foot storage building. But after work and finances stabilized, it used $358,000 of $799,000 in reserves and contingency funds to add it back.
Chief Frankie Petrick told the fire board recently that changes have gone smoothly and subcontractors – there have been up to eight working in the building at one time – are “staying on track.”
“Things are going very well,” she said. “At this point there’s nothing to indicate we won’t make Sept. 23.”
The new station, the largest public construction project in Yachats’ history, is being built with a $7.7 million bond approved by voters in 2016
The fire district intends to put its downtown station and a building it owns behind the station up for sale. It also needs to work with the city of Yachats to change the zoning from a public service designation to something allowing commercial or residential use.
It also needs an appraisal.
Lindsted the next work visible to the public will come this summer when the middle and west end of the rectangular site are cleared of construction trailers and material storage. That’s when earth movers will return to reshape the land, add drainage swales, the main driveway, parking lots and landscaping.
“The building is easy,” he said. “I have control of that. The site is going to be the next challenge.”
