Steel tariffs may impact the budget for construction on the new Washington Fire Station.

Kristofer Orth with Design Alliance presented updated designs and an estimated budget for the facility to the Washington City Council at their recent meeting. With a $100,000 Washington County Riverboat Foundation grant and other changes factored in, the current budget comes in $11,416 under the approximate $2.9 million budget that was estimated in February. Orth talks about steel tariffs, “Some potential impact on a project of this nature is the steel tariffs. We talked about this at our last design meeting. I spoke with our cost estimating team and they don’t really know exactly how much it would be, but they estimated somewhere between $25-50,000 so I’ve included a $50,000 potential impact for the steel tariff.”

Final cost won’t be determined until a contract bid is awarded, which Orth commented that many contractors are interested in this project. The city council approved a resolution for a notice of hearing and letting to Design Alliance.