City approves project manager and construction manager for fire station build

ASHEBORO — What can go wrong when building a new fire station? Asheboro City Manager Donald Duncan said a lot can go wrong, and it can be costly. 

That was why he asked the city council to approve a construction manager at risk program (CMAR) and a project manager for Asheboro Fire and Rescue’s new emergency operations center (EOC #3). 

At the Feb. 5 meeting, he recommended Storey Project Management based on their experience building fire stations in North Carolina. 

Duncan gave examples of cities that built stations but did not meet all the requirements, costing them more money to overhaul them. 

“The City of Fayetteville has a fully complete fire station they can’t move into,” he said. “Fire stations look like big boxes, but they’re quite unique with all the different things that have to go in them. And there have been some horror stories here in the state.” 

Historically, the city has used the design-build model for capital projects, but Duncan said the dynamic pricing in the market makes the CMAR a better option. 

“We’ll have a partial design completed that we can then tun over to a team that would be selected through a [Request for Proposals] process,” he said. “You select the most qualified contractor and design team to finish this project for you, with the whole idea of controlling costs as much as is feasible.” 

Next, he recommended the council establish a capital project fund to contain all federal and state money and that they engage a project manager. 

The council approved a CMAR, hiring Storey as a project manager, and moved $1,785,456 remaining in state grants to the EOC #3 project fund. Duncan asked Mayor Joseph Trogdon, Jr. and Assistant City Manager Trevor Nuttall to sit on the CMAR committee. 

New truck and equipment 

Fire Chief Eddie Cockman and Assistant Chief of Operations Matthew Needham asked the city council to approve funding for a new fire truck and a trailer and equipment for trench and structural collapses. 

Council member Kelly Heath asked them to go over the state of their fleet. Needham broke down the numbers: 

■ Their average equipment age is 15 years n The recommended retirement age is 20 years.

■ Asheboro Fire responds to an average 25 calls per day, generating regular wear and tear.

■ Four vehicles were currently out of service, being rebuilt, or had parts break down.

Cockman said right now, fire departments are struggling to get trucks built to spec in a timely manner, but they found a truck already in production that closely matches their needs. It would cost $950,000 and has an expected delivery date of 2027. 

Council member Phil Skeen said working trucks are critical to the department keeping its Class 1 ISO rating. 

Finance Officer Debbie Reaves said the city budget allocated $750,000 for a new truck. They could support the cost of some equipment through capital overlay, so they only needed to allocate $135,364. 

Asheboro Fire also asked to put $197,446.14 toward special equipment for trench or structural collapses. Their request states about 60 personnel are certified for trench rescues but don’t have the equipment. It further states that trenches are opened regularly for public works, utility, and building projects, and those projects will increase with economic growth. 

Reaves said that money could come from capital overlay, small equipment, and the other supplies and material funds. 

Captain retires 

They honored Fire Captain Chris Moore for his retirement just shy of 30 years. Cockman told a story of they were walking through snow in 2002, and he joked they would see another snowstorm before Moore retired. Asheboro saw back-to-back snowstorms at the end of January. “I should have told him I was sorry. I didn’t mean for it to be that bad,” he said. 

Moore received a retirement pin and his helmet.