Photo by Jon Anderson
The new Hoover Fire Station No. 1 at 1596 Montgomery Highway in the Green Valley community is an 8,900-square-foot, two-story building with three vehicle bays, sleeping quarters and a kitchen, replacing the city’s original station tucked behind the Hoover Court shopping center. The $5.25 million station, which ran nine months behind schedule due to contractor delays, is expected to begin operations in June with a formal grand opening later in the summer.
It took nine months longer than expected, but the Hoover Fire Department is finally ready to open the new Fire Station No. 1 on U.S. 31 in the Green Valley community.
The contractor for the $5.25 million fire station, Kyser Construction, in May was able to repair electrical wiring for street lights along U.S. 31 that was damaged during construction and was expected to pour the final strip of concrete along the highway to bring the job to “substantial completion” by the end of May, Fire Chief Clay Bentley said.
The Fire Department expects to move its staff and equipment into the new station and begin operations there in June, Bentley said. A formal grand opening will come later in the summer, he said.
Construction of Fire Station No. 1 has been “quite the challenge” from the start, Bentley said.
The city gave Kyser Construction notice to proceed on the project in April 2024, and it was supposed to be completed by August 2025.
But the contractor was slow to mobilize and get started on the job, putting the company behind schedule from the beginning, Bentley said.
The city in February of 2025 contacted the surety bonding company that guaranteed the work of the contractor, and that sped things up, but as the summer progressed, it became clear the job was not going to be completed by August, Bentley said.
There seemed to be a lack of supervision and accountability on the job site, and Kyser Construction had multiple superintendents assigned to oversee the job at different times, he said.
The surety bonding company was involved again in September, and city officials debated whether to terminate the city’s contract with Kyser Construction but decided it would end up costing more and take more time if they did, Bentley said. Plus, it was cleaner to keep one contractor so there could be no dispute about who was responsible for warranties with the work, said Tim Aho, the architect overseeing the project for the city.
Kyser Construction was to be fined $500 per day for each day the project was late. That would have amounted to more than $130,000, but city officials negotiated a penalty amount of $88,500 to bring the project to completion by the end of May, Aho said.
This is the first time the city has used Kyser Construction, and it likely will be the last, Bentley said. City officials knew there were some concerns about whether the company could complete the fire station in a timely manner, and there was not much of a difference in cost between Kyser and the next lowest bidder, but the previous administration and previous city attorney felt there was no reason the city shouldn’t award the contract to Kyser, Bentley said upon questioning by the City Council.
“I’m a little embarrassed about it,” Bentley said. “In hindsight, you can always make better decisions. In this situation, we feel like we’ve stood the course, and we’ve done the best we can with the contractor. … I’m getting calls on a regular basis from citizens not happy. No one is more unhappy or upset about the situation than I am.”
There were at least 46 change orders for the job, but many of those couldn’t be avoided, Bentley said. The end result, including revenue from penalties, brought the final cost of the project to about $55,000 below the original contract amount, Aho said.
Efforts to reach Kyser Construction for comment before press time were unsuccessful.
Aho Architects did a fine job managing the project for the city and following the proper processes to hold the contractor accountable and make sure the company delivered a quality product, Bentley said.
The end result for the taxpayers is a very nice fire station, even if did take longer than expected, City Administrator Brian Muenger said. “What’s really important at the end of the day is this is a station that’s going to serve our citizens for 50-plus years,” Muenger said. “I do think we’ll be very satisfied when it’s done.”
Photo by Jon Anderson
The new Hoover Fire Station No. 1 at 1596 Montgomery Highway is slated to open in June.
The new station at 1596 Montgomery Highway is a two-story station in a space between Salvatore’s Pizza and the Stone Creek Dental Care building. The roughly 8,900-square-foot station has three vehicle bays, one of which is a drive-through bay. The first floor has a kitchen, dining room, lobby and captain’s office, and the second floor has restrooms and sleeping quarters for the firefighters. The station will house at least 12 firefighters on a rotating basis over three shifts, Bentley said.
The station replaces the city’s original fire station, which sits just a couple hundred yards to the west behind the Hoover Court shopping center.
The current station is tucked out of sight in an area sometimes referred to as “dumpster row” because of all the dumpsters behind the Hoover Court businesses. This new location gives the Fire Department easier and quicker access to U.S. 31 and more visibility, Bentley said. Also, the design of the new station will allow firefighters to do their jobs better, he said. It also gives them a facility that is more comparable to other fire stations in the city.
City officials have not yet determined what will happen to the old Fire Station No. 1. There has been some discussion of selling it, but other ideas also have been considered, including letting the Hoover Historical Society use it or using it as a logistics center for Fire Department equipment.
