The facility that the Rock Township Ambulance District and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office are working together to have built in Imperial is expected to be completed on schedule this summer, despite some delays because of winter weather, said Jerry Appleton, the ambulance district’s chief.
The facility is being built at 3057 Lions Den Road on a 6.4-acre property the ambulance district purchased for $260,000 in 2022. The building will house a combined ambulance station and Sheriff’s Office substation.
On Feb. 5, Appleton said the construction crew was almost finished putting up the roof decking, which will soon allow for interior work to begin in the building.
“Once they get the deck on, they will be able to get the roof membrane on, and it will be weather tight,” Appleton said. “Then they should be able to knock it out.”
Appleton said inclement weather has delayed construction, but the building is projected to be completed by July. If construction is completed at that time, he believes the facility will start being used in late August or early September.
“The contractor believes they will get caught up quickly,” he said. “The big thing is getting it under roof. Once it is under roof, the progress should be pretty quick.”
Appleton said the building will have 14,569 square feet of total space. Rock Township will occupy approximately 7,685 square feet, and the Sheriff’s Office substation will use about 4,680 square feet.
He said the two organizations will share about 2,050 square feet in the building.
Costs for the $7.75 million construction project will be shared between the two entities. Engineering and architectural services will be split down the middle, and construction costs will be divided according to how much space each entity is allotted, with Rock Township paying just more than 60 percent.
Appleton has said the ambulance district’s share of the cost will be funded with revenue from a $23 million bond issue voters approved in 2018. Sheriff Dave Marshak has said the county’s share of the construction costs will be drawn from the Sheriff’s Office reserves.
Appleton said the project’s construction cost appears to be on target, and he thinks the building may be completed for less than what was budgeted.
“We are optimistic that a lot of the money we allocated for unforeseen expenses will not be needed,” he said. “That would be a good thing because we would be able to put that money back into other projects.”
Rock Township currently operates four stations, and a fifth has long been part of the district’s long-range master plan.
Appleton said the Imperial building will allow the district to better serve the growing Rock Township coverage area, which includes Arnold, Imperial, Kimmswick, Barnhart, part of the Fenton area and surrounding areas.
“Right now, we are protected in our high-utilizer areas, the city of Arnold and Fenton,” he said. “Those are the most populated areas, where we see most of our calls. The area of Seckman Valley is growing like crazy. This will allow us to keep resources in that area and not have to get resources from Arnold, Fenton or Barnhart to cover an area that is just exploding in population.”
The Sheriff’s Office will relocate its East Zone substation, which has been housed on the Windsor C-1 School District campus in Imperial for more than 20 years, to the shared facility.
Once the shared-use building is complete, the county will enter into a long-term lease agreement with Rock Township for the Sheriff’s Office portion of the facility.
“How we use substations has certainly changed, and it is imperative that we evolve with the changes,” Marshak said. “It will be a welcome addition for our officers and the community.”
Marshak said the Sheriff’s Office will continue to use the building on the Windsor campus after the substation is relocated.
“We haven’t made any final decisions on how that space will be used or what kind of investment that will look like,” he said.
After the shared facility is completed, Rock Township and the Sheriff’s Office will hold a community event to allow residents to see it, Appleton said.
“We will have some sort of ceremony,” he said. “We are proud of it. The sheriff is proud of it. I am sure when it is done, the residents will be proud of it. It is not just for us. There will be a meeting room for the public, and there will be spaces for them to utilize it. This is their building too.”
The Sheriff’s Office substation likely would be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Rock Township ambulance crews present in the building around the clock.