Christopher Braunschweig
Newton Daily News, Iowa
(TNS)
Oct. 25—Before voting on the consent agenda, the Newton City Council agreed to pull aside one of the items — a resolution approving a change order for the fire department’s engine bay floor reinforcement project — for further inspection and questions. Council member Joel Mills requested the item be discussed.
“I did notice that this resolution (on Item) 16 is a sizable amount of money, so I did have a quick little dialogue with our city administrator and found out, with the help of our city clerk and some others in finance, that the large amount of money can be approved on a consent agenda,” Mills said at the Oct. 20 council meeting.
However, he felt it would be beneficial for the general public to know the reasons why the $32,800 change order would be placed on the consent agenda and not on the regular agenda. Oftentimes, the consent agenda features small purchases or low impact resolutions, like approving liquor or tobacco licenses.
The aforementioned change order is the fourth change order of the bay floor reinforcement project, whose initial contract was approved for $107,750. Since then, there has been a $6,078 change order for increased charges, $322 for addressing a construction defect and $8,563 for an engineering review.
Including the final change order, the project totals more than $155,000.
The fourth change order is for additional work required to complete the floor reinforcement. Fire Chief Jarrod Wellik said he placed the order on the consent agenda because that is what he had done for the previous change orders. Wellik explained he wasn’t trying to pull the wool over council members’ eyes.
“I was just trying to keep things orderly and efficient,” Wellik said. “Change Order No. 4 is kind of the culmination. It’s the end of the project. Anytime you tear into an older building, there are things that are unknown and some things that are maybe not quite 100 percent the way they appear to be.”
In the far southeast corner of the fire station is a room that had block walls, and it was assumed those walls sat on top of footings. However, crews found out in the construction process the walls were not sitting on top of footings. Wellik said the city was then left to review the issue and proceed with one of two options.
“We either needed to put footings underneath it or we had to pull some block down and run the FRP panels underneath,” Wellik said. “So the choice was made to do the less expensive, which was to pull the block walls down and put that all the way through. It was a change that came up as conditions were found.”
Despite the costs of the project increasing by more than $47,000, Wellik argued it is “still pretty cheap compared to backing that ladder truck into the basement of this building.” Before it was the city’s fire station, Wellik said the building used to be a grocery store, so the floor loads were designed for far less.
“This should be the end of it,” Wellik said, suggesting it is the last change order.
According to city documents, a bay floor reinforcement was needed in order to support the new $2 million ladder truck, which is much heavier than the existing truck. Reinforcement was needed so the truck would not cause structural damage to the fire engine bay.
The contractor for the bay floor reinforcement is Minturn, Inc., the same company hired to complete the tennis courts project at Aurora Park; the tennis courts have also needed numerous change orders.
© 2025 the Newton Daily News (Newton, Iowa). Visit www.newtondailynews.com. Distributed by Read more
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Posted: Oct 26, 2025
LOHR MCKINSTRY
The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
(TNS)
TICONDEROGA — Residents of Ticonderoga Fire District will have a chance to decide on Tuesday, Oct. 28 on whether they want to spend $17.8 million on a new fire station.
The vote at the Ticonderoga firehouse at 60 Montcalm St. is from 6 to 9 p.m.
A public information session on the plan will be held at the firehouse at 6 p.m. today and is open to all.
Fire officials said the financial impact of building a new station will increase the current Fire District property tax rate from $1.03 per $1,000 of assessment to $1.79 per $1,000.
That means someone will a home assessed at $200,000 would pay an additional $357 in property taxes annually.
The new, 19,000 square foot station would be two floors and construction would start in 2027 and finish in 2028. The cost would be bonded with a 25 year loan.
Fire Chief Jason Parents said the fire department gets about 300 calls a year.
“We’re having some major problems,” he said. “The station has definitely outlived its lifespan.”
He said the current building is deteriorating and was a former grocery store with cracking floors never intended to support heavy fire trucks. It had white mold in 2023, which was removed, but could return, he said.
The fire company looked at other locations, such as the vacant former Lowe’s Home Center building on Wicker Street, but none were suitable, the chief said.
He said the plan for the new fire station is bare bones and was designed by CSArch, an Albany-based architectural and engineering firm.
The fire department issued a statement before the vote.
“Our fire station has served Ticonderoga since 1976, but it was never meant to be permanent,” it said. “Originally built as a grocery store, it now suffers from serious issues: ongoing mold remediation, roof and structural concerns, deteriorating floors, exposed gear lockers, and bays that are too small for today’s equipment.”
Informational videos on the current building are at: vimeo.com/1084942313/70dc174fd5 and vimeo.com/1110275525/925caa99c1.
© 2025 the Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.). Visit pressrepublican.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Posted: Oct 25, 2025
Milena Malaver
Miami Herald
(TNS)
An 11-year-old girl was struck by a City of Miami Fire Rescue truck Friday morning as a paramedic crew was taking a patient to Jackson Memorial Hospital, officials say.
Around 8 a.m., the vehicle, which had emergency lights and sirens on, was near 542 NW 12th Ave., close to SLAM! Miami Charter School in Little Havana, when the girl “unexpectedly stepped out between standstill traffic,” Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez said.
Miami Rescue 24 tried to swerve to avoid her, but ended up striking her. The crew on board stopped to give medical aid while another fire-rescue vehicle arrived and took her to Ryder Trauma Center.
The girl appeared to be in stable condition and was alert while being taken to the hospital, Sanchez added.
The original patient being taken to the hospital was taken to another rescue unit and brought to the hospital.
This story may be updated as more information becomes available.
©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Posted: Oct 25, 2025
James Allen
Fergus Falls Daily Journal, Minn.
(TNS)
The Fergus Falls City Council approved the acquisition of a new fire engine truck from Fire Safety USA, Inc. for an E-One 100’ Aerial Truck at its Oct. 20 regular meeting.
The full cost of the truck is for $2,033,000. Originally, the department had applied for a national grant from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant to help cover the cost of a new aerial truck, according to Fire Chief Ryan Muchow. However, on Sept. 29, the department learned that the grant request was not part of the FEMA award.
It was learned from Muchow that the department has approximately $430,000 on hand in the truck/building capital fund, and currently has a budget request of $205,000 in the 2026 budget. Muchow said it was anticipated that the city would be financing roughly half of the purchase price, with the amount being levied for the payments to begin in 2030. He shared that there was also a potential for a prepayment discount if a partial payment was made the when the truck was ordered; however, City Finance Director Bill Sonmor will help determine if that option is financially beneficial compared to the return on investment with the city’s current truck/building capital funds.
With all that said, the fire department won’t be getting the fire truck right away, as the truck build time is estimated to be three years, 10 months. Once the engine is completed in 2029, full payment would be due.
Muchow said they had looked at three different companies and found this to be the best and most affordable, but viable option. There was also a $15,000 change order included in the current price that would be a cushion in case anything is missed during the build.
The goal in the interim would be to keep the current truck running and in the fleet for another five years, at which point it would be 35 years old, as it was placed into service in 1995.
In other council items, an ongoing discussion of how Visit Fergus Falls should function going forward was had, resulting in changes requiring the termination of an old agreement, and a proposal for a new agreement.
With unanimous council approval of a consent agenda resolution providing written termination of the 2021 agreement with Visit Fergus Falls effective Dec.31, the city’s agreement with Visit Fergus Falls will expire at the end of the year with a 60 day notice required by statute for cancellation.
The proposed new agreement would increase the administrative cost from 3% to 5% as allowed by state statute, which will result in an additional $3,400. In addition, Visit Fergus F
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