Hampered by traffic at an older and outdated fire station, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board of Directors recently approved a nearly $10 million contract to build a replacement for Station 86 on Willow Pass Road in unincorporated Bay Point.
County Supervisor Federal Glover hailed the January approval this week, saying “It’s an exciting project that is good for the region as a whole. Response time is so important with the explosion in development there and the Concord area.” Glover said he expects the project to be completed by March 2022.
“The new Fire Station 86 represents an important improvement for the residents of Bay Point and Pittsburg and the firefighters who serve them from it,” said Lewis Broschard, fire chief, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. “It will be a larger station than most, built to accommodate two crews for use when additional personnel are on duty during critical fire weather conditions and capable of housing oversized equipment such as our bulldozer.”
The new station will be located about five miles west at 10 Goble Drive. The new building will be a one-story structure including, but not limited to, three apparatus bays, kitchen, dorm rooms, offices, restrooms, training, exercise, storage, day and dining rooms along with all associated HVAC, electrical, civil site work, and landscaping. The new station will also include an emergency generator and fuel tank. The project will also include a photovoltaic roof system and has been designed to meet LEED Silver equivalency per the county’s standard for public buildings.
C. Overaa & Co. of Richmond was the low bidder on the contract at $9,579,000.
The current Bay Point station is at least 60 years old and is believed to contain asbestos, requiring remediation for even the smallest of modifications to the structure. This fire station will serve Bay Point and the adjacent City of Pittsburg. The Pittsburg area south of Highway 4 has seen significant growth in recent years. The Pittsburg City Council last week approved a 1,500-home project southwest of the new station’s site.
The county fire district has 30 stations with three currently closed.
The new building will be a 10,800 square foot, single-story structure, with 5,100 square feet for living areas and 5,700 square feet for the apparatus bays.
How about staffing Fire Station #55 that was completed in East Oakley 2 years ago?
A large boat caught fire on Bethel Island yesterday and it took Fire Department almost 40 minutes to arrive.
A fire on Bethel Island on Feb. 6th killed a man.
Fire Dept was almost 30 minutes arriving to that one.
Meanwhile the new fire department station #55 still sits empty less than 2 miles away.
A better question is why does Contra Costa County have two fire Districts? Why an East County Fire District, which is where Station 55 is located AND a ConFire (Contra Costa County Fire) District which is where the new Station 86 is located?
Analogate them and save yourself the cost of one District Board, one Fire Chief and accompanying support and logistical staff.
And while we’re on the subject, why not a Metropolitan Police Department for the County? That about 12 Chief’s salaries you could save…
Janus,
That was going to happen in the late 90s. Everything was in place for it to occur, but then county supervisor Joe Canciamilla squashed it.
Your money goes to other services in east contra costa, and you don’t pay the same toward fire protection. They can’t afford to staff another station, let alone build one.
@Cautiously Informed
If you are referring to a Metro PD I was a cop in Contra Costa Co in the late 90’s and trust me, it wasn’t going to happen. All the County can do is agree, it cannot force the cities to give up their power…. And they will not.
Janus, I was referring to Contra Costa Fire District taking over what is now East Contra Costa Fire District.
Janus – there are more than 2 districts. San Ramon Valley Fire is a separate district as is Crockett- Carquinez, Hercules Fire, Orinda-Moraga Fire, West CC Fire, El Cerrito Fire & Richmond Fire. They have dedicated community tax bases they don’t want to surrender to the County. In particular San Ramon who has fought for years to keep the county away from their funding source. Can’t blame any of them for staying away from ConFire and the ConFire board which is the 5 Stooges of Pine St.
@ Well Folks
You make my point.
Tax payers can save a boat load of money in salaries and benefits. You save money by elimination of duplication of services (dispatch centers, chiefs, command staff, corporation yards) but on one cares. It’s all about being in control.
No one wants to give up their fiefdoms even though a blind man can see the inherent benefits of scale and interoperability but hey, just keep on keeping on and I don’t want to hear a thing about the high cost of individual employees’ total benefit packages and CalPERS costs… You want control, it’s the price you pay.
Janus – actually ConFire should be split. Most cities either run their own fire or 2-3 small ones throw in together. Just look to Alameda County for great examples.
ConFire is governed by the county BoS and that is not good. This means the 5 Stooges of Pine St have control over the county in general, the Sheriff’s Dept, CCRMC & ConFire. They have way to much power considering their knowledge of anything.
You are saying benefits and retirement cost would be saved. No it would not as you still need the same number of house staff and admin,
All of the districts in Contra Costa are in CCERA for retirement but ALL safety gets CalPers Health. Would be nice if all county employees could be on good health plans like CalPers offers and a cheaper price than the crap the county offers rank & file which are costly. Single employee on CCHP pays $469 a month for employee share. And we tried with the county to get everyone on CalPers Health but the county didn’t want it as they would not have “control”. All the BoS & county admin care about is control and their empire
@ Well Folks
If every city ran their own fire departments in Contra Costa County there would be 19 Fire Chiefs, 19 Deputies Chiefs , 19 admin assistants, 9 corporation yards, who know how many dispatch centers and that is only do the obvious duplications.
The Fire Chief of East County Fire makes $465,191.08 in total compensation. Extrapolate that out for the duplicated positions and tell me how cutting admin staff will not say money?
Yes, there will still be the same number of firefighters per station, but you sure as hell won’t need the same number of command staff – the highest salaries positions and sundry support and logistic staff and Fire District elected boards etc etc etc.
Yep. But that is the way most areas run fire. Like I said just look at Alameda County. All separate depts.
Don’t forget the La-Z-Boy couches and 80” tv’s. Nice job. That’ll look so much better than the POS they have now. They need it.
For $9.5 million they better post their lasagna recipe.
Why does the amount have to be 10 million? That really is a high number. I’m sure it can be built cheaper.
Why? There are two main reasons:
1. It’s a public building.
2. It will be located in California.
You need a station that can house two fire engines (minimum). Each bay has an exhaust system to pull the tail pipe emissions out of the garage. Those doors need to open quicker than our house does. There needs to be a place for the fire crews to have a break, sleep, cook, likely some training (in classroom and in the ‘yard’), place to park the on duty crew personal vehicles, probably some type of back up generator, wonder if they have to store diesel there for the engines in case of a disaster, … These are not small buildings. They are expensive to build. If a single family house is a million dollars around here .. I can see 10 million dollars for a station.
I am just guessing at what it takes …
Let Seeno donate it to offset all the traffic that will be created by more houses
Station #55 was built and paid for by the developer who built Oakley’s Summer Lake homes, it was part of the deal…..And the East County Fire District STILL hasn’t staffed it. They are AFU.
And the bulldozer is bigger than a fire truck? Why can’t it be stored under a shade structure?
Because a firetruck needs to be in tip top perfect shape everytime it leaves the station. Do you want a firetruck to come to your house to put out a fire and say “the water pump is broken/rusted/didnt get maintained” and then cant help put out your house fire.
I thought not.
Keep that fire truck looking nice and perfectly brand new. Maintenance costs money.
I have attended multiple meetings during the design process of this installation. It has been over 6 years and the Fire Department has been responsive to the local concerns not just why there is a need for this station, but also where the best location near this intersection. It is rare when an agency is this open for public comment. Thanks for giving all of us a chance to offer ideas and contribute to this project. The bulldozer is needed to cut emergency fire lines in the delta and Naval Weapon station, as it is a fire hazard.