Beatrice Moves Forward on Fire Site Demolition, Final Property Acquisition

BEATRICE – The City of Beatrice has selected a contractor to demolish buildings on the future site of a new Beatrice Fire and Rescue Station. The city council approved the bid of Fossler Excavating, at a cost of $60,000. Four bids received ranged as high as $125,000.
The site is between 6th and 7th, from Bell to Scott Street.

Elected officials also approved an environmental engineering agreement with Terracon Consultants for the site, which includes removal of an underground tank on the former Kleveland property.
The one-thousand-gallon tank is believed to contain some used oil. The state fire marshal did not know the tank was there, so it first had to be registered by the city prior to removal.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says the consulting contract includes decommissioning monitoring wells and removal of some contaminated soil at property formerly owned by a dry cleaning business.
"We knew that the soil around where Jan's Cleaners was located, had tested high for some different chemicals...dry cleaning solvent, that kind of stuff. We knew there was some additional soil that had to be excavated out of that site. Terracon will be there and will oversee it. Fossler will do the work".
The engineering company will also help design a vapor mitigation system at the site to ensure that any gases in the soil do not enter the new fire station. The consulting work will cost approximately $20,000.

Meanwhile, the City of Beatrice has approved a settlement agreement to obtain the final two-and-a-half lots on the site, from Rhen Marshall, Inc. A court had set payment at $162,500 in a condemnation proceeding. Tempelmeyer says by law, the owner is allowed relocation costs and costs to reestablish a business, along with the hiring of a relocation specialist.
"Seeing all of those, when you add up the costs, we were going to be roughly $200,000, a little over that is what we were antcipating those costs to be. You have to give them a 90-day notice which would be into the middle of March, at that point. The offer on the table that is before you is a global settlement....all costs included...for $190,000".

The city council approved that amount on a 7-0 vote. The property owners will vacate the area by March 1st.