Conroe awarded a contract Monday to build Fire Station 4 on FM 1488 after negotiating a lower price with the firm selected by a review committee.

The city was able to save about $60,000 on the $2.3 million contract, without effecting the construction of the facility. The savings will come in the price of fill dirt for the site, said Fire Chief Ken Kreger.

Conroe will construct the station at the northwest corner of FM 1488 and Interstate 45 to replace the facility it sold to The Woodlands Association in Harper’s Landing. The station sale was part of the deal to avoid the annexation of Harper’s Landing by Conroe and Conroe was given a three year lease of the property at 250 Harper’s Landing Boulevard.

That lease is set to expire at the end of December. The Woodlands has no immediate plans for the stations, said The Woodlands Fire Chief Alan Benson.

The Conroe City Council initially balked at awarding the contract to Teal Building and Construction on Feb. 24 because it was not the low bidder and some of the other top companies were more local. The council sent the contract back to the committee for further review. The committee consisted of Kreger and Deputy Chief Paul Sims of the Conroe Fire Department, Council Members Jim Gentry and Toby Power, Purchasing Director Wallace Dodd and Assistant City Administrator Paul Virgadamo.

“They have a process and a scoring system that the city developed,” said Conroe Mayor Webb Melder. “The award was based on the process and current evaluation system.”

Nine bids were received to build the new station, and the list was narrowed to five candidates. Teal was selected based on a formula that included price, reputation, reference, competence and experience.

The 8,800 square foot facility will include two bays for a pumper truck and a reserve pumper truck and room for four firefighters per shift. In addition, the facility has space for extra personnel during an emergency, such as a hurricane, with a total capacity of eight, Sims said.

Station 4 will include extra, climate controlled storage space to house the Quartermaster’s facility.

In 2006, Conroe began the three year process of annexing Harper’s Landing into the city limits. As part of the deal to avoid annexation and allow The Woodlands to pursue a future form of governance, the township agreed to pay $320,000 toward fire service to Conroe and to provide the proceeds from one-sixteenth of a one cent sales tax collected from commercial properties in the area.

The deal also included the purchase of Conroe’s Fire Station 4 in Harper’s Landing for $1.3 million by The Woodlands Association and leasing the property to Conroe for three years at $1 per year.

A similar deal was reached with Houston to provide $16 million in funding for infrastructure as well as one-sixteenth of a one cent sales tax collected in its extraterritorial jurisdiction annually, estimated at $45 million over 30 years.

Conroe Fire Stations
Conroe currently has five fire stations. They are located at
Fire Station 1
300 Sgt. Ed Holcomb Boulevard
Fire Station 2
425 North Loop 336 East
Fire Station 3
424 E. Foster Drive
Fire Station 4
250 Harper’s Landing Boulevard
Fire Station 5
1601 North FM 3083 West
Source: City of Conroe