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Building to begin on substation

Tiffany Tuell

(Updated: Thursday, July 02, 2009, 12:00 AM)

After years of planning and making amendments to the plans, construction on the Madera County Oakhurst Government Center was set to begin the end of June with a ground breaking ceremony on July 1. Three buildings will be constructed off Highway 49: a sheriff's substation, an evidence garage and a fire substation.

"It's been a long time coming. It's been eight years with one obstacle after another. About six months ago, the county took it over and we got it ready to go quickly," said Supervisor Tom Wheeler. "I'm excited. I promised Sheriff John Anderson and the fire station that I'd be getting that going."

At last week's Board of Supervisors, Mark Wilson Construction was recommended to begin construction on the substations and the motion was passed.

The construction company, one of eight bidders for the project, gave the lowest bid at $4,960,000.

Project Manager Loren Green said it should take 300 days (10 months) to complete the project.

Originally, the stations were going to be much larger.

Last July, however, Madera County made an agreement with the original developer to transfer the project to Madera County and work on the design and construction themselves. The county obtained an architect to downsize the building plans because original plans were not affordable.

The buildings were downsized approximately one-half, according to Green.

The revised plans for the Madera County Oakhurst Government Center are as follows: fire substation (6,000 square feet), sheriff substation (9,600 square feet) and an evidence garage (1,500 square feet).

Sheriff Chief John Anderson said, "One thing that will improve greatly is we have employees at the government center in Bass Lake, we have people at the Red House (detective division), which is located by a sewer plant in Bass Lake, and patrol is done out of a house on Road 425B that was a formerly a doctor's office."

According to Anderson, management said the current situation was not efficient for communication and operational services. "The new substation will improve our operation and communication," said Anderson.

Green said there was a need for a new sheriff and fire substation and said the new area will be a "consolidation of personnel."

The fire station will be relocating from its current location next to the Oakhurst Community Library

The development is off Highway 49 and Westlake Village Drive. A new street, named Liberty Drive, will be made specifically for the stations.

Wheeler said there was a ground-breaking for the substations back in 2006. Now that contracts have been signed and construction will finally begin, there will be another ground-breaking at 11 a.m. July 1

Green said there are hopes for the future to build a satellite government center that will house offices for building inspectors, social services and other functions not yet identified.

However, for economic reasons those plans are not concrete yet.