Jackson Contractor Group Inc. of Walla Walla breaks ground in July on the Pasco Fire Department’s long-anticipated new fire station and headquarters.

Jackson submitted the winning bid of $7.5 million to build the 21,800-square-foot Fire Station 84, administrative offices and storage at 4929 W. Court St. The project is expected to be completed in February 2022.

The 16,663-square-foot building will house eight administrators and includes a station with four equipment bays and support facilities for personnel, such as living and sleeping quarters and a preparation area.

The station will be home to a medic, ladder, rescue and water tender. It will sleep up to six with a minimum staffing of four.

The 5,100-square-foot storage building will house five added bays for fire trucks and other apparatus. Jackson gave the lowest of four bids.

 The Pasco City Council voted unanimously to award Jackson the contract on June 15, saying it was pleased the bid came in below the engineer’s estimate of $9.2 million.

Jackson’s bid covers several items on the city’s wish list—a fifth equipment bay in the storage building and utility connections to city services.

The project is subject to Washington State’s Commercial Prevailing Wage for Franklin County. Rates vary by trade, but prevailing wages for carpenters, for example, run between $47.37 and $52.35 per hour depending on the type of carpentry required. Rates for dozens of job types are posted at the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries web site.

Jackson asked for bids from subcontractors in early June, including small, woman-owned, disadvantaged, minority, veteran and disabled veteran businesses, according to a posting on the state Office of Minority & Women’s Business Enterprises.

The new Station 84 will replace a station currently serving the Riverview area at 1208 Road 48. The city acquired that station in an annexation asset transfer in 2016.

No groundbreaking is planned because of restrictions on gatherings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The city is replacing the Road 48 station and Station 83 to support its six-minute response time goal.

It purchased land between Roads 48 and 52 in 2017 to support the Fire Station 84 project. HQ Station 84 will occupy 4.7 acres. The city issued general obligation bonds in November to pay for its newest fire station, based on a projected cost of $11 million.

The wood-framed one-story HQ Station will face Court Street. Designs show a dedicated driveway for emergency vehicles to pull on to Court Street and a second driveway that loops through parking areas to the storage building and the apparatus bay rear doors.

TCA Architecture Planning of Seattle is the project architect. David Robison of Strategic Construction Management Inc. is the city’s representative.

Two Pasco firms are playing leading roles as well. Harms Engineering Inc. is the civil engineer and White Shield Inc. is the geotechnical engineer.