MCDERMITT - The first portion of McDermitt's Community Services Multiplex is nearly complete. The metal building has been erected nearly entirely by volunteer labor, according to former McDermitt Fire Chief Gary Wilson.
Wilson said he and Bruce Easterday, Brett Dowdy and Gerald Moore have been working long days on the four-bay garage portion of the planned structure.
The concrete floor will need to cure until September, at which time it will get a non-slip epoxy coating.
The project has faced challenges all along the way, but McDermitt community members are still confident its completion will be a great addition to the community. The entities that will be housed in different portions of the multiplex include McDermitt volunteer fire department, Humboldt County sheriff's McDermitt substation, McDermitt Community Services, and Humboldt General Hospital emergency medical personnel and ambulance for the northern part of the county.
The multiplex is a project that grew in scope along the way. The original USDA grant was for the four-bay garage structure that's nearly complete. The price for that portion of the project came in $27,000 higher than the grant, but Humboldt County floated a loan for the McDermitt fire department to cover the shortfall.
The expansion of what started out as an addition to the fire station into a multiplex building that would house three first-responder entities and the Community Services organization under one roof made a lot of sense, but greatly increased the cost of the project.
Remodeling work for the sheriff's office substation section was estimated at $25,000. Adding the ambulance and short-term living quarters for emergency medical personnel will require about $63,000 extra. A firewall down the whole structure is likely to add $35,000 and an exhaust system is estimated at $13,500. Heating and air conditioning added $36,000. Upgrading the electrical system increased the project again by an estimated $18,500. Asphalt paving for the parking area and driveways is estimated at $18,000.
The additional money is coming from a Community Development Block Grant, which comes with some additional requirements. Wilson said they're putting out requests for qualifications for engineering and architectural work, as the grant requires.
Once that's done, the building will go out to bid. McDermitt's remote location will undeniably be a factor affecting what companies may want to bid and what their bid price will be, officials said.
Wilson said in addition to all of the effort being put toward the building, the McDermitt fire department is also looking for a fire chief and more firefighters.
Wilson resigned as chief in January, saying "I'm getting too old and I know when it's time to quit." It isn't as if he's just sitting around in a rocking chair; he and his wife manage McDermitt's sewer and water system.
Wilson says, of the need for more volunteer firefighters, "we have a couple of new young guys interested."
Having a nice new building probably won't hurt the recruitment effort either. "We're just plugging along," said Wilson, who added the now nearly half a million dollar multiplex should be finished sometime in 2014.
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