On August 15, Isle of Wight County Supervisors voted unanimously to award the construction contract for an expansion of the Rushmere Volunteer Fire Department to Norfolk-based Spacemakers Inc.

The company was the lowest of four bidders, bidding $1.59 million. The construction price for a planned 1,100-square-foot addition will include men’s and women’s dormitories and showers, as well as two vehicle bays totaling 2,700 square feet, one of which will house an ambulance for the Isle of Wight County Volunteer Rescue Unit.

It is the latest milestone in the expansion of the department’s emergency services. The ambulance, known as Medic 30, entered service for the first time at the 1990-built Rushmere station on the Old Stage Highway in early January.

“They are conducting a rescue operation there at the moment; they have a unit there now and I believe they are only operating during the day because they do not have the facility to stay overnight,” said Tony Wilson, head of the Isle of Wight’s Public Works Department.

Rescue unit chief Brian Carroll said in January that the ambulance was scheduled to be staffed by paramedics from the Isle of Wight County Fire and Emergency Services from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at that time.

Rushmere, an unincorporated community at the northernmost tip of the Isle of Wight-Surry County border, has a population of just over 1,100. Its fire and rescue district stretches from the intersection of Wrenns Mill Road and Old Stage Highway north to where Lawnes Creek empties into the James River and was responsible for about 180, or 6%, of the rescue crew’s 2,600 to 2,800 annual calls in January, Carroll said.

Wilson said Spacemaker’s offer was below the $1.7 million an architect had previously estimated.

“I was quite surprised,” he said.

But despite the lower than expected costs, the Isle of Wight must raise almost $1 million in addition to the currently budgeted amount.

According to County Administrator Randy Keaton, $839,000 is currently allocated for the project in the Isle of Wight’s 2024-25 budget. The remaining $989,916 includes $829,916 for construction and administrative costs, plus a contingency budget of 10%, or $160,000.

Keaton proposes paying for most of the cost by reallocating about $900,000 in funds earmarked for a similar expansion of the Carrollton VFD. Carrollton’s expansion plans are still in the design phase, so construction is “still a while away,” Keaton said.

Combining funding for Carrollton and Rushmere would leave a gap of just $130,000, which he said could potentially be funded if and when the county borrows money for the Carrollton VFD, a new branch of the Blackwater Regional Library in Windsor and other projects.

“We have enough money to start the project. We would just have to come back with a budget amendment to cover unforeseen expenses,” Keaton said.