The city will spend more than $10 million to construct a new Public Safety Building over an expected 14 months.

"We're just looking forward to getting in the new building," Whitehorse Fire Chief Clive Sparks said following a noon meeting of council and senior management last week.

The plans for the new 2,732-square-metre building at the top of Two Mile Hill were presented to the city by architect Charles McLaren.

"It's actually a fairly, I think, forward-thinking, long-range plan on the part of the city to improve service to the public," McLaren said in an interview following the meeting.

Planning has occurred over a number of years, beginning with the initial idea of renovating the current fire hall.

The project eventually morphed into building a new fire hall, then expanded to include other services.

"It has evolved a lot, but I think for the best," he said.

At the Municipal Services Building (MSB) downtown, there's a number of services the public has to head upstairs for.

In an effort to free up space in the MSB, offices were planned out for the new structure. The offices that will move, such as some bylaw services, aren't typically frequented by the public, McLaren said.

"That added basically about the same office space again as the fire service required for their offices and dorm rooms and stuff," he said.

Also included in the building will be a meeting room for emergency measures officials and a room specifically for computer equipment that holds much of the city's information.

"Data, these days, is so important," McLaren said. "There'll be secured servers that are climate-conditioned.

"It's got a special fire extinguisher, a dry chemical or a dry system so water doesn't get on the equipment. The last thing you want to lose in an earthquake or a major fire is your data."

Extensive planning has also gone into devising what will be created outside the building, including the public water filling station, used by contractors for road work or individual residents not on the city's water system.

While a water station already exists outside the current building at the top of the hill, there's a number of issues with the current location, McLaren said.

"Because it's attached to the side of the building, A, it creates an icy mess right there for the firefighters and B, no sooner do they need to move a fire truck around the yard than there's a water truck there, so there's a conflict of traffic," the architect explained.

With city officials wanting to maintain the water fill service without the traffic problems, plans were drawn up for a fill station kiosk that will be off on a small road next to Range Road.

"(It will) be on the same property, but separate from the building," he said. "So there's a whole separate kiosk building. It's kind of like a gas station, but for water."

As the project has expanded over the years, so too has the price tag.

Now estimated at $10.6 million, $3 million will come from federal gas tax funding, $4 million from a city reserve and the remaining $6.7 million will be borrowed.

Rob Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, introduced two local representatives from RBC, from which the city will likely borrow the money.

While it's expected $10.6 million will cover the costs, McLaren also told city officials that it's hard to tell how possible trade embargoes, material shortages and a slowdown in construction markets in places like Vancouver and Alberta could affect the cost for the good or bad.

McLaren said he has already spoken to Outside contractors interested in the project.

Mayor Bev Buckway asked George White, the city's maintenance and safety services manager, if the tender will indeed close around April 19.

White said that provided the tender documents can be released by the end of this month, a six-week period for bids to come in would not be unreasonable, putting the closing date around the third week in April.

There would then be a four-week period to award the bid with physical site work beginning in late May, with completion scheduled for May 2010.