Peru council approves $449,700 for fire station, dispatch improvements

Exterior building improvements are coming to the Peru fire station and Illinois Valley Regional Dispatch building.

The council approved a $449,700 motion with Lite Construction during Monday night’s council meeting.

Peru Fire Chief Jeff King said the fund will be used to put a new roof on the station and tuck point the building.

“The new roof will go over the second part of the station … the portion we are sharing,” he said. “We will fix the bricks – there’s mortar falling out of the brick.”

Director of Engineering & Zoning Eric Carls said the funds will be dispersed from the General Fund over two fiscal years. The city budgeted $275,000 for this year and will work on an agreement for the following.

“This is a project we have been talking about over the course of a couple of months now,” he said. “We had four bidders on this project. The range of bids was from $449,700 on the low to $630,000. We had an architect’s estimate of $473,005.50.”

Carls said the city intends to get the contracts turned around quickly, so it can begin some of the roofing work as soon as possible.