Dublin Council OKs bid to build long-awaited fire station 

It has been talked about for a long time, but efforts to build a fire station on Dublin’s north side took a major step toward becoming reality last week.

The Dublin City Council approved the contract Thursday for the construction of the Northside Fire Station, with C.E. Garbutt Construction Co. accepting the guaranteed maximum price for the project. 

The guaranteed maximum price will be $2,868,172.46, said Dublin City Manager Josh Powell. 

The city, through Sen. Jon Ossoff’s office, has secured $1.82 million in form of a direct allocation from the federal budget. Powell said the city is applying for this money through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it will be supplemented through the 2018 SPLOST to make up the total cost of the project.

“I’m looking forward to getting this project done,” said Powell, acknowledging the Dublin firefighters in the room. “As you can see in the audience, we have a number of people here from the fire department who have fire hoses ready if you try to deny this. They have an interest in making sure our community has the fire protection it needs. I think it’s a great investment.”

Dublin Mayor Joshua Kight said a representative from Garbutt, who spoke to the council during its pre-council meeting, announced that once the resolution was approved they would anticipate starting work on the new fire station in the last week of July or first week of August.

“I know we’ve been talking about this fire station for a long time,” Kight said. “We were hoping to start work on it about a year and a half ago, and then we had the grant opportunity. I think it was appropriate for this council to pause to try to get the grant. 

“Because we did that, it did delay things for about 18 months, but we got over $1.8 million in federal funds to help with the cost of this project. This will really allow us to build a great fire station on the north side.”

There is money for renovations of the Southside Station, too.

“This council is putting a lot of funds into public safety and improving the facilities you work with,” Kight said.

Councilwoman Tess Godfrey asked Dublin Fire Chief Matthew Cutler about staffing.

“We are going to start out staffing it (the Northside Fire Station) with what we have and go from there,” Cutler said.

After the motion was passed, Godfrey told the firefighters they could applaud. She also let the firefighters know that council is not done with renovations at the Southside Station.

“We will circle back and do some more upgrades,” Godfrey said.

Earlier in the meeting, the council approved Signature Tennis Court Co. to do work on pickleball courts at Hilburn Park at a cost of $149,000.

“They will be out of service for up to eight weeks,” Kight said. “Because of that, we don’t want to start this project until the Middle Georgia State University courts are resurfaced and ready to go.” 

At the previous meeting on May 16, the council agreed to work with Middle Georgia State University to convert the schools’ tennis courts into six pickleball courts because of the work that was going to happen at the courts at Hilburn Park.

In other business, the council:

– Approved the purchase and hauling of graded aggregate base (GAB) from the quarry to Jarondon Drive off of Kellam Road. The total cost is $37,250.

– Held a second reading and public hearing on CV Properties of Dublin’s petition to have the city annex a half-acre of property located behind 105 Fairview Park Drive for the expansion of existing medical office. The ordinance was passed.

– Held a second reading and public hearing of ordinance to adopt the fiscal year 2025 operating budget for the city. The total requested budget for FY’25 is $95,364,169. The budget will include investment in the city parks, roads, facilities, utility infrastructure and a wage adjustment for personnel.

“I want to thank staff and council members,” Kight said. “It’s the largest budget in the city’s history, but at the same time, we managed to keep the taxes at the low level that they are at. … I’m very proud of the budget that you’ve put together and the council has passed. I think we’ll be able to accomplish a lot this next year.”

– Held a second reading and public hearing amending entitled utilities of the code of ordinances, which will raise water and sewage rates.

“This is a minimal increase,” Kight said. “A bill of $24 to $24.80.” 

– Approved a resolution with an agreement with the Department of Corrections for a work detail services at Riverview Golf Course. The total cost is $24,659.

– Heard a first reading of an ordinance to re-adopt the Georgia Municipal Employees Benefit System retirement plan.

– Approved the terms of a promissory note and loan agreement with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority for the Industrial Sewer Project. 

– Adopted the Laurens County Operation Plan.

“This has to be updated every four years and our EMA Director Bill Laird has been working on this,” Powell said. “Our fire chief and police chief has also been involved in this process. It basically outlines the process of procedures in a state of emergency in our community.” 

– Approved a declaration of surplus on equipment, much of it from city hall.