New Albany redevelopment moves forward with firehouse, police buildings
Jun. 14—NEW ALBANY — The City of New Albany is moving forward with the construction of a new firehouse and potential new police headquarters after the New Albany Redevelopment Commission meeting Tuesday.
The commission passed a resolution approving $1 million of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds for the construction of a new firehouse to replace the fire station at 1709 Twin Oaks Drive.
The Twin Oaks Drive station will relocate down the road to a new firehouse on 2557 Charlestown Road.
The land that the new firehouse will be on was purchased around the same time as the Colonial Manor project, said Josh Staten, economic development and redevelopment director.
"That part of town has been a huge focus for us, and when we purchased the site we realized, 'Hey, we got an opportunity here to increase public safety throughout the area, to refresh that firehouse,'" Staten said.
Staten said that about 10% of the city lives a little over half a mile from the Twin Oaks fire station, so they are excited to continue this project in the area.
The firefighters will remain at the Twin Oaks location until construction of the new firehouse is completed.
"It's going to be more energy efficient, it's going to be more modern, it's gonna allow them to better do their job. They've played such a massive role in the history of this city but also during the pandemic," Staten said.
New Albany Fire Chief Matthew Juliot mentioned at the meeting that the current station was built in the early 1960s and they are just seeing a lot of maintenance and mechanical issues with the building.
Juliot said there has been a nationwide problem finding firefighters. In its last testing cycle, he said that they had about 70 applicants but only about 40 of those applicants showed up to take the test.
"It's a dangerous profession and anytime that you're looking at it having a good facility, good equipment makes a big difference in recruiting I'm sure," said redevelopment commission member Adam Dickey.
In November, the redevelopment commission hired GM Development Companies, LLC for a scoping period.
Along with the funds, on Tuesday the redevelopment commission approved a resolution allowing the development company to move forward with construction.
The entire firehouse project is expected to cost a little over $3.5 million, including the $1 million of ARP funds.
Staten said that the city is working on putting together a financing project that should be presented to the redevelopment commission soon.
The city also approved a request for proposal (RFP) from GM Development to begin working on the new police department.
GM Development will begin working with the city and architect company Axis for the scoping part of the project.
Staten said that the New Albany City Council will have to make the ultimate decision about building the new facility. He said that the main factor in getting the new building approved is the financial aspect of it.
GM Development will have to compile construction, materials, labor and other costs during the scoping phase before a price for the entire project will be estimated, Staten said.
The city began discussing moving the police department to a new location last year, after the Floyd County Building Authority recommended relocating the police department out of the Frank C. Denzinger Criminal Justice Building.
The recommendation was one option the building authority presented to the Floyd County Commissioners to make room for all of the county's judicial functions in the City-County Building.
The county never made an official decision about the criminal justice building, which they own.
