Councillor proposes tiered fire hall plan

Apr 29, 2015

Councillor Alan Revill has put on paper a set of proposals that he expressed verbally at a meeting of the South Frontenac Committee of the Whole last month.

The proposal, which when contacted over the phone earlier this week he said was intended to “get some ideas on the table for council to discuss”, envisions building one larger hall for the highest level of training and meeting space. It also calls for two smaller, full service halls, which would also be used for training of crews from across the township. Finally, the third type of hall would be “the most compact.” but would include “the fundamental requirements like m/f washrooms and showers” and would need to be built to post-disaster standards.

Revill wrote that the location of the main hall could be the Village of Sydenham, and would include administrative space where the chief might work from and any other administrative staff that the department takes on over the years.

“The Sydenham location would have the advantage of being located near the township offfice,” Revill said.

The two hub locations could be the Sunbury and Hartington halls, leaving compact halls in the other 6 locations: Bradshaw Road (Bedford), Burridge Road (Bedford), Road 38 – Verona (Portland), Perth Road (Loughborough), Latimer Road (Storrington) and Carrying Place Road (Storrington).

Revill took this exercise on because when the township went to a consultant for a design plan for the Perth Road fire hall late last year, the cost was set at $2.2 million, an amount that was placed in the 2015 township budget but was later pegged back to $1 million.

“If we consider that all of our fire halls are going to need to be replaced over the next ten to fifteen years, and the Perth Road hall is well down the list of halls in terms of call volumes, we could be looking at setting aside $2 million each year for firehalls,” he said.

He said that he is “not opposed to spending money on fire services in order to meet our needs. The costs have gone up and will continue ot go up, as we all realise around the council table, but there are cost implications that we need to consider.”

Members of Council took a tour of fire halls in surrounding townships and found a wide variety. In his report to Council, Revill said he favoured some of the features of the less epxensive fie hall in Mountain Grove to what was found at the more expensive fire hall in Amherstview, for example.

“I found the Amherstivew Hall to be far more than we need,” he said. “The spaces in the bays were excesssive for every purpose ...”

Fire hall construciton costs range from $200 to $300 per square foot, so the square footage of halls is a major issue.

Revill said he looks forward to hearing the views of his fellow councillors on these matters.