Pratt County Commissioners awarded bids last week for a new firehouse in Sawyer that will be built with the aid of a $300,000 Kansas Department of Commerce grant that includes a local match in the form of volunteer labor.
The commission accepted the lower of two bids from Kessler Construction of rural Sawyer for an all-metal 60 by 120 foot Behlen building for $49,843. Kesslers submitted the only bids, even though the project was advertised statewide, according to Bob Hearn, a member of the firehouse core committee.
The other major expense is for 350 cubic yards of concrete to be supplied by Lies Ready Mix of Pratt and Kingman for a cost of $32,320.
The grant also includes the purchase of land at the north edge of the town, which was owned by Pat Aubley. B & G Consultants of Manhattan are the architects for the project and the Kansas Rural Water Association is the administrator.
Bids for the project came in about $50,000 under the original estimates, Hearn said.
A groundbreaking ceremony is being planned for later this month and construction could begin in early September.
“I think by the first of November or first of December you’ll see a building there,” Hearn said. “I sure hope so.”
The grant requires that the project be completed within two years, and because it will be built by volunteers, it may take that long. The core committee of Rex Robinson, Jamie Miller, Steve Flora, Mike Van Ranken and Hearn will oversee the project. Miller, a concrete mason by trade, will take the lead on the concrete work, Merlin Kessler is in charge of erecting the building and Ernie Swartz will be responsible for electrical work.
The Kansas Rural Water Association will have personnel on site “quite a bit” of the time, Hearn said, to perform inspections and insure that everything is done to specifications.
A timekeeper will keep track of all the people working to make sure their contributions total 40 percent of the material cost. That won’t be hard, Hearn predicted, because the value of labor will be calculated at Washington, D.C. prices. His sister, Mary K. Hearn, will take on the role of timekeeper.
Other volunteers will also be needed, Hearn noted.
It may not be an old-fashioned barn-raising, but it will come close, he agreed. Architects and Rural Water personnel have been impressed by a volunteer project that doubled the size of the Old German Baptist meetinghouse a few years ago, and by the availability of skilled workers within the community.
