BAY MINETTE — The contractor responsible for delivering a new fire station missed the May 31 completion date and will now start paying daily fines as stipulated in the contract, Bay Minette Fire Chief Phil Bryars said.

"The contract stated the project was to be completed by the end of May," Bryars said. "Now they'll start paying a liquidation fee of $100 per day for the first five days, $200 a day for the 10 days after that and $400 a day thereafter."

Bryars said the contractor has given a new estimated date of completion of June 17, but said he feels like it will be closer to the end of June.

"It doesn't bother me so much that they're late. We talked early on in the project and felt they were going to be over the deadline date," he said. "They have no problems paying the liquidation fee."

Bryars explained that with each payment installment the City has made, it has held out a 10 percent retainment so that when the final payment is made, the fines owed by the contractor will be deducted.

"They won't end up owing us anything," Bryars said.

He said the City has already saved $50,000 on the estimated $1,539,000 project by not having to pay taxes on the materials.

"I don't know what the final figure will be, but it will be under that $1 million," he said.

Despite the holdups, Bryars said he his happy with the way the station is coming along.

"They're doing a good job, it looks good down there," he said. "There's not a lot of work left to do. They'll probably remove the scaffolding in the next few days and it should all start to come together after that."

Additionally, he said workers were laying asphalt Monday, and inside were already laying tiles, painting and putting up the ceiling tiles.

"It's really coming together and it should be done by the end of June," he said. He said they will probably be able to begin moving in almost immediately after the new station is complete.

"You have to let the asphalt cure for about two to three weeks before you can drive those heavy trucks on it, but we're just in the second week of June, so we should be able to move in pretty soon after it's done," he said.

Bryars said the new facility will greatly enhance the fire department's comfort level and training ability.

"We will have more office space and the bays are twice as many square feet as what we have now," he said.

He said currently the ladder truck has to remain parked outside because there is only a 3-inch clearance between it and the bay doors.

"The new bay doors will be 14 feet tall by 14 feet wide. The ones we have now are 12 feet tall by 12 feet wide," he said.

Additionally, the new bays are open on either side and feature a pull-through drive, meaning drivers when returning from a fire can pull straight in, and when leaving can pull straight out.

"Most (vehicle) accidents in fire departments - and that's not just us, it's fire departments everywhere -  is in backing up," he said. "A lot of times when a crew returns from a call there isn't anyone here to help them back up."

Probably the most important change, however, is the training room.

"Right now we have to borrow space for training because we just don't have the room to accommodate our guys," Bryars said. "We will be able to do our training there at the station.

"Our upstairs training room will also double as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for the Emergency Management Agency (EMA) during hurricanes and other disasters," he said.

He said the new building is designed to withstand 140 mile-per-hour winds.