The Sedona Fire District’s new Station 4 will be ready for SFD to move into by November 2027, Fire Chief Ed Mezulis said during his update to the Governing Board on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
“They say October, but I’m going to give it a month to find room, because you never know,” he said.
He said other good news is that when contractors began the core drilling, workers dug down 18 feet, much easier than they would have done at the current Station 4 site if SFD had built a the replacement station there.
“That previous orchard is a wonderful construction medium for us, which means the potential exists to reduce costs for excavation and lot preparation,” he said of the new location on Jordan Road.
Demolition of the building on the lot at 401 Jordan Road will take place in late summer, Mezulis said, with construction on the new site beginning shortly thereafter.
“We received notification today that the city has scheduled a meeting with us for a pre-construction review,” Mezulis said.
The meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Afterward, SFD will gather more opinions from the public on the project, but the dates haven’t been announced yet.
“We’ll invite the public in to look at the project and discuss concerns or questions they may have,” Mezulis said. “If the outcomes of all of those are positive — which I don’t anticipate they won’t be anything but positive — through about Pegasus report estimated we were going to spend $8.5 million to upgrade our radio system.”
Due to the more specificity in the project, removing things that were already budgeted, changing the employees and policy makers or the plan, Mezulis said SFD was able to bring it down to $3.9 million.
The board approved a change order to the project of about $1.4 million.
“While the cost is $1.396 [million], the actual burden, not currently budgeted, is $692,000 because of those contingencies we built in,” Mezulis said.
The first step of the project was $2.4 million so the change order, which includes the $692,000 in contingencies, brings the total up to $3.9 million for the project.
“Ultimately, the capital plan does have adequate funding to support the totality of the six months,” Finance Director Gabe Buldra said.
Correction:
The story in the Friday, Dec. 19, print edition “SFD Station 4 to open in 2027” reported the current Station 4 would begin demolition in late summer. The building currently on the lot at 401 Jordan Road, when the new Station 4 will be built on, is planned for demolition to take place in late summer. The current Station 4 will be used until the Sedona Fire District can move into the new building in 2027.
