The city selected WRK Engineers to upgrade the city’s police and fire department buildings on Monday.

The Seaside Fire Department will receive more than $1.7 million, and the city’s police department received an additional $1.6 million in seismic retrofit grants from Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency.

The firehouse was built in 1989 at 150 S. Lincoln as the city hall was being built next door at 989 Broadway.

Fire Chief Joey Daniels said he and Public Works Director Dale McDowell listed project “must-haves” including rehabilitation experience, project team, quality control and cost control. WRK Engineers, based in Vancouver, Washington, scored highest of the final bids.

The Vancouver-based company also played a role in helping the fire department prepare the seismic retrofit grant proposal, serving as consultants during the process.

The seismic evaluation and successful seismic rehabilitation grant application prepared for Seaside earlier this year introduced them to the project challenges associated with the firehouse and police station, the company’s president Brian Knight and principal Spencer Straub, wrote in their Aug. 30 proposal.

The goal is for the buildings to withstand an earthquake that during a Cascadia Subduction Zone event.

The contract calls for design work, permitting, site analysis and construction oversight.

The project’s completion is required by the end of September 2024. The buildings will not be vacated during the construction period.

The City Council unanimously approved awarding of the bid to WRK Engineers.

When Seaside Fire and Rescue received an assistance to firefighters grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to upgrade radios, they were able to replace radio equipment in use since 2009.

The old equipment still works and could be put to good use elsewhere, Daniels said, in recommending the equipment be donated to the Columbia River Fire and Rescue at their request.

“In Columbia County they’re having a little more struggle getting their radio systems up,” Daniels said. “They have the same radio we had before. They’re requesting to have some of our batteries and pieces so they can get by for the next couple years.”

Mayor Jay Barber and the council unanimously approved the donation.

“We have a good history of doing this with the fire departments,” Barber said.“It’s a great thing that the equipment can continue to have a good life.”