MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The bidding process is now open for the new fire station in Meridian Township that will be located on the corner of Okemos Road and Central Park Drive.

In 2012, voters approved 3.5 million dollars for the entire project, which includes architecture fees, the inspection process, and cost for furnishing the station. Voters will get assessed on their taxes for the mileage and will be paying for this for approximately 20 years.

The bidding process for the project opened on June 16. Contractors will have about three weeks to review the plans and they must submit a bid by 2 p.m. on July 9.

There will be a pre-bid meeting on June 24th at 10 a.m. in the Meridian Township Municipal Building Town Hall room for prospective contractors. Immediately following the meeting, contractors will be able to walk over to the site for further review.

“It’s a competition between contractors to give us a bid price for what they say they can do the project for. Once we get the bids in then we’ll review those,” said Director of Public Works and Engineering, Raymond Severy. “We don’t have to give the contract to the contractor that has the lowest price because we can look at their qualifications, past experience and things like that before we actually make the final award.”

Severy says they hope to receive at least half a dozen bids and hope to have picked a contractor by the July 15 Township Board meeting.

Groundbreaking is expected to take place on July 22, but it’s anticipated that contractors won’t start work until early August.