Kingfisher city commissioners spent more than an hour last Monday discussing options to help pay for the construction of a new fire department.

It’s not a position they necessarily envisioned themselves in when Kingfisher voters overwhelmingly passed a Fire, Infrastructure, Recreation and Emergency (FIRE) services tax in May 2021.

The one-half cent sales tax to be collected for a decade was proposed largely to build a new fire department to replace the aging, outdated facility currently in use.

If there was any money left over, it could be used for capital improvement projects, according to the question proposed to voters.

However, new estimates show that not only will the city not have that money left over, it won’t have enough to build the 20,000 square foot structure that firemen say is necessary to properly house the department.

MA+ Architecture of Oklahoma City provided an estimated cost late last year through a request for quote (RFQ).

With rising construction costs, the estimate is about $500 per square foot, or just over $10 million.

Conservatively, the sales tax was estimated to generate about $6.5 million over its life.

City Treasurer Anita James estimates the sales tax will eventually collect about $8.9 million.

“That’s using historical data and natural trends,” she told commissioners during the regular April meeting.

The tax has currently collected just over $1 million to date. Without changing the current pace, that would equate to $8.4 million over its life.

Which puts commissioners in their current dilemma: Do they try to find avenues to attain more money or do they build a lesser fire station?

“I think the citizens, when voting yes, voted for a new fire station. I am personally 100 percent OK with spending all the tax money we get for a fire station,” Commissioner Kyle Mecklenburg said. “What I’m hesitant about is doing anything over that.

“You set the budget, then decide what that affords you to build.”

Commissioner Geoff Covalt noted that architectural designs have a built-in contingency fee of about 20 percent. Meaning, he said, if the budget was set at $7 million, then the contingency fee would put the total right at $8.4 million.

“That consumes everything we’ll get,” he said. “Unfortunately we got caught in a tough time. A very tough time.”

At $500 per square foot, $7 million would allow for a 14,000 square foot building.

“If it’s 14,000 square feet, you’re going to move us into a building we’re not going to fit in,” said Fire Chief Tony Stewart.

The current facility is 7,600 square feet. It was built when the city had three firemen and limited equipment.

The department now has six full-time firemen and the amount of equipment has grown exponentially.

Stewart continued: “And you’re not going to have any room for growth (with a 14,000 square foot building). If you’re going to do that, you’re not being prudent to the citizens, I think. They’ll come back and say, ‘why didn’t you build that to grow into?’” “If you only have so much money, you can’t spend more than that,” Mecklenburg said.

Stewart responded: “That’s why we’re here, to discuss how we can get more money to get us into a building that we’re not too small to start out with.”

Jon Friesen, the city’s community development director and building inspector, has reviewed the MA+ Architecture estimate.“ Those are based off of needs,” he told commissioners.

“There’s very little fluff in there at all. If we’re looking at going to $7.5 to $8 million, we’re basically getting what we’ve got.”

Potential options of attaining additional money were discussed, though not in great detail. They included borrowing against the city’s CDs, which it has done before; general obligation bonds; or even asking voters to extend the tax.

The agenda item only called for discussion, so no action was taken.

Commissioners did request Acting City Manager Brittney Hladik to contact MA+ Architecture “to design a 20,000 square-foot building with potential modifications.”