A sample design of a fire station.

Fannin County Commissioners like to buy local, even with architects.  Wednesday, March 30, the Fannin County Board of Commissioners opened sealed bids from the architecture firms who want to design Fannin County’s new fire station #1/EMS Center, located on Windy Hill Road next to the bridge over 515.  County Clerk Rita Kirby read the bid quotes.  The quotes ranged from 5.6% to 7.2% of hard construction cost. After questions to architects David Goodspeed of Goodspeed Architecture and Rick Larossa of R Design Works, who were at the meeting, the Board of Commissioners voted to review the bids for one week.  They will return to the question on Tuesday, April 5^th at 6 pm.  This upcoming meeting is a substitute for the April 12^th meeting.  The Board of Commissioners second meeting in April will be on the fourth Tuesday, April 26.

There was one bid from a Chattanooga firm, one bid from an Atlanta firm and three bids by Fannin County Architects.

The first bid came in from David Goodspeed Architecture from Dial.  Goodspeed Architecture is new to building for Fannin County.  He does have experience with building schools, government buildings and fire stations in Florida, from where he moved to Fannin County. R Design Works is out of Morganton.  He has designed several Fannin County buildings:  Fannin County Development Authority, Mercier Orchards and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Fannin County.  Currently, he is designing the City of Blue Ridge’s new welcome center.

Milan Vančura, the third architect, is out of Epworth.  He designed the Mineral Bluff Train Depot and Epworth United Methodist Church. His bid was not as concretely described as Goodspeed Architecture and R Design Works’ were.

Fannin Fire Chief Larry Thomas was at the meeting as well, grinning from ear to ear, that the dream of having a sufficiently-sized fire station #1 is closer to reality.  Chief Thomas was also showing off pictures of Fannin’s heaviest fire truck driving on the future site of the fire station off Windy Ridge Road.  The ground preparation of the site is strong and stable enough to hold the engines, which reduced a concern both the Fire Chief and the Board of Commissioners had about the site.