Jeannette seeks more time to complete plans, construction of new fire station

Jeannette officials are expecting to get an extension on a $1.2 million grant designated for a new fire station.

City manager Ethan Keedy said, based on communication with state officials late last week, the expected extension will allow work on the new station to continue into 2025. The deadline to spend the grant funds had been Dec. 31.

“They’re giving us the extension that we need,” Keedy said.

It looks like that $1.2 million grant will be close to the amount needed for site preparation work and the shell of the new station. Six bids were opened Tuesday for the scaled-back project. The apparent lowest bidder for the building work was Nevaeh Pipe Bursting of Normalville at $919,300.

That will be in addition to a $250,000 bid from KGD Contracting, Inc. of Jeannette for site preparation work.

Council is expected to approve bids for the project at its meeting Thursday. The new station is planned for an empty lot next to the current building, which is attached to city hall on South Second Street.

Jeannette officials were forced in October to scale back the fire station project after the lowest bid to complete the whole project came in at $4.17 million. Under the new scope, the land will be prepared and shell of a building constructed with garage bays, heat, a generator and a bathroom, said Steven Eby, the engineer working on the project from Widmer Engineering in Connellsville.

That’ll get the fire trucks inside, Keedy said. Additional funding for more building amenities and firefighters’ living quarters will be sought, he said. The department has four fire trucks, the fire chief’s car and a bucket truck they’d like to have under roof.

Eby and Keedy plan to go through Nevaeh’s bid package to ensure there’s no errors and see if the price tag can be further reduced. Keedy said architectural and engineering costs had yet to be factored into the project, which amounts to $1.17 million so far with the construction bids.

“We just might have to take out some of the amenities,” Eby said.

The grant extension came after requests Keedy made with state officials, he said. The first over the summer was rejected, but another one in late October proved fruitful, he said.

Construction is expected to take several months.

Plans for the new station have been in the works since 2019, but prices for supplies and construction materials have increased since then. The grant was awarded in 2022.

The current station, built in 1927, has sewage problems, black mold, termites and asbestos. It also is not big enough to hold all of the department’s trucks.

Jeannette has the only paid full-time firefighters in the county.