Meridian Construction Inc., of Spokane, has been awarded a $3.7 million contract to construct the Spokane Valley Fire Department's new administration office building and to repair its firefighter training facility.

Work on the new, 22,000-square-foot administration building, to be located next to Fire Station No. 8, at 2110 N. Wilbur, will begin early next month, says Mark D'Agostino, Meridian's president.

He says Meridian also received a contract to rebuild part of the fire department's training facility, located at 2411 N. Pioneer Lane. The six-story concrete practice tower is used to train firefighters, and D'Agostino says Meridian will repair a few floors of the structure. Larry Rider, deputy chief of the fire department, says the 20-year-old tower will also be expanded by about 700 square feet.

D'Agostino says work on the training facility is expected to be completed by July, and he hopes to have the administration building finished before the end of this year.

Rider told the Journal earlier that the fire department has outgrown its current administration offices, located inside Fire Station No. 1, at 10319 E. Sprague.

Funding for the new office building came from a levy approved by voters in 2009, he says.

Spokane-based Lindquist Architects PS designed the structure.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department serves the cities of Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, and Millwood, and portions of unincorporated Spokane County. The fire department has 10 stations in all.

The department next hopes to reconstruct Fire Station No. 6, at 6303 E. Sprague, Rider says, and is currently in the design phase for that station. He says the fire department hopes to seek bids for that project in 2012.