The Austin County Commissioners Court held an EMS Station Construction Workshop discussing the three EMS Stations that are to be built in Austin County.  The Stations are going to be constructed in Wallis, Industry and Bellville.  Austin County recently completed the EMS station in Sealy and with the addition of these three new stations the county is set to be able to handle the population expansion as it is projected for at least the next ten years and beyond.  Each station is being constructed to be able to expand to handle additional ambulances as well as complete additional crews.  The station that is being eyed to handle the first big push in population growth is the Sealy EMS station with the completion of the I-10 expansion project.

The three new station’s construction is being bundled together as one building contract in order to give the best package in terms of cost as well as finding quality building sub-contractors.  Smaller counties, such as Austin County, have trouble getting contractors to bid small projects because the dollar amount and size of the project just isn’t enough to justify their effort.  The bundling of the three EMS stations into one project solves this problem by expanding the scope to make it attractive to larger construction service firms to bid on.

Kenny Burns with Burns Architecture, LLC, the company that assisted with the Austin County Justice Center, as well as the Christenson Building Group were on hand to give information to the court as well as answer any questions they might have.  The Christensen Group brought the price lists for the project as well as contractors and suppliers who would be suitable to be awarded certain aspects of the building contract.  One emphasis the court had was to try to utilize local businesses and labor as much as possible in the construction process. 

The total cost of the project(s) is 8.7 Million, with 4.5 million being covered by funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP).  (For a complete breakdown of the grant funds you can consult the National Association of Counties Website HERE)  However, despite the grants from the act covering a large portion of the construction, Austin County will still have to cover 4.2 million of the building project.  

The complete discussion and presentation can be viewed in the video below from the 00:02:54 of the video to the 00:23:23 of the video.  The discussion of the financial impact on Austin County from the construction costs can be viewed from the 00:23:23 of the video to the 00:25:55 of the video.

 

 

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