By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – The village is seeking a buyer for the current Fire Station No. 1 site, where the Suamico Fire Department will be moving out of once a new station is built.
The Suamico village board gave the go-ahead Monday, June 15, for Village Administrator Alex Kaker to post and publish a request for proposals for interested buyers to submit business plans to outline proposed uses for the parcel, which was appraised at $325,000 in 2018.
Though no minimum purchase price is being sought by the village, Kaker said the developer would have to enter into an acceptable development agreement with the village, prior to closing on the property, with the village’s attorney costs related to drafting the agreement being reimbursed by the developer.
“I put that in there, because I’ve had some experience where drafting these developer agreements goes back and forth between the village and the developer, and those costs add up very quickly,” he said. “I want to protect the village and be able to reimburse any attorney costs for drafting the developer’s agreement.”
Kaker said proposals would have to be received by the village by 3 p.m. Sept. 14, after which all proposals with purchase prices would be reviewed by the board Sept. 21.
The current Fire Station No. 1 parcel at 1745 Riverside Dr. is listed in Brown County property records as having .587 acres.
The RFP states the current building is approximately 5,520 square feet and has four drive-through vehicle bays
The new Fire Station No. 1 site at the intersection of West Deerfield Lane and Riverside Drive has 1.9 acres.
The new building, which is scheduled for completion next year, will have more than 20,000 square feet with two stories and six apparatus bays.
Calavera Park expansion
Though the board budgeted around $250,000 in 2020 for upgrading Calavera Park with 60 percent of that amount coming from private donations, Kaker said with the COVID-19 pandemic it “didn’t make a lot of sense for us to aggressively pursue donations for park upgrades.”
The board agreed with Kaker to scale back on the first phase of park improvements and focus on expanding the parking lot and the subsequent required work to add a storm water pond and erosion control.
“We could put down gravel this fall and then pave it next year,” he said.
Kaker said the cost to do that would be around $158,000 with the money coming from the Stadium District Fund.
“We could start to fundraise for the next phases this fall and/or next spring for the new soccer fields, hopefully when COVID-19 starts to dissipate,” he said.
Kaker said he expects it will take about four to five weeks to prepare bid construction documents, which would be put together prior to seeking board approval to bid out the project.