The Fulton Police Department should have a new home by early summer after the Fulton City Council awarded a bid for renovation of the former Callaway Electric Cooperative building during Tuesday night's regular meeting. Later in the meeting, the council granted authorization to purchase a new fire truck and failed to pass the proposed Downtown Brick District zoning overlay.
The council approved a $244,448 bid from Rhad Baker Construction, LLC. of Fulton to perform the renovations to the old electric cooperative building and convert it to meet the police department's needs.
City Engineer Greg Hayes said the city received three bids, with the lowest coming from Rhad Baker, whom he recommended for the project.
"Everyone we checked with was satisfied with the work he'd done," Hayes said. "Last Thursday we brought him in because I wanted to make sure he had a good idea of what the project would entail. He seemed to be confident, I think he has a good understanding (of the project) and seemed to be confident."
Baker's bid also included two alternates. The first was $19,168 for installation of a separate HVAC unit for the long-term evidence storage unit that Hayes said "would allow them to set the temperature and humidity for that unit rather than the building as a whole." The second was $9,392 for an air scrubber.
Ward 2 Councilwoman Mary Rehklau asked whether the two alternate projects were something the police department has at its current station. Mayor LeRoy Benton said it did not. When several council members expressed concern over extra expenses when the budget is tight, Benton pointed out that those projects "are probably something we can do if you need to down the road."