By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Ellis County Commissioners will meet in special session Friday afternoon for a conference call with the new Rural Fire/EMS building project architect.

Possible building component changes will be discussed with architect Brad Teeter of Spangenberg Phillips Tice Architecture, Wichita.

Commissioners recently rejected all bids for the new Rural Fire/EMS building and the remodeling of the building at 718 Main for a new Administrative Center. Each bid was more than what the county had budgeted.

In a memo to commissioners, Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund suggested “the next time we bid this project we make sure we safely fit under the budgeted amount by approving cuts that reduce the estimated cost to $3.0 million to $3.2 million. My reasoning in this case is that although our low bid was $3.95 million, all of the other bids were over $4.0 million.”

“We shouldn’t assume that new bids will match the low bid range.”

Sund said if substantial cuts are made to the project, “then we can have alternates allowing us to add back things that may be desirable but were cut due to cost overrun concerns.”

According to Sund, Commission Chairman Dean Haselhorst plans to tour the Ford County EMS/Fire Building in Dodge City to see how it compares with Ellis County’s plan.

Rural Fire Chief Dick Klaus has said he’d be willing to standardize the garage doors and make the fire side doors 12 feet wide rather than 14 feet in order to reduce costs.

The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball conference room at 718 Main.