“Absolutely.”
That's how Burk's Falls Mayor Chris Hope responded to a question on whether the municipality still supported a new fire hall it would share with Armour and Ryerson.
“We're on board; we're ready to go,” Hope said.
Advancing the fire hall project forward became somewhat murky at a tri-council meeting of the three municipalities in February where Hope asked if there was an appetite to put off the new build for three to five years.
The question surprised Armour and Ryerson councillors who argued that lengthy delays would make the project more expensive.
The present cost for the 9,000-square-foot building is estimated at $3 million.
Ryerson is the administrator of the fire hall, and the joint councils met again on March 26 where it was agreed Ryerson would begin securing the financing for the new hall to help keep the estimated cost at the current amount.
Hope says that Burk's Falls proposed the adjusted timeline for the new build because development opportunities are emerging for the municipality, and it has to ensure it can afford the cost of new water and sewer infrastructure.
“That's just one of the challenges of being in a small town and having to keep up with the infrastructure,” Hope said.
Additionally, the three municipalities have been debating building a new library because the present facility can no longer meet the needs of the residents.
Hope further said it's not the case that Burk's Falls can't afford the new fire hall.
He said he simply wants it understood that the municipality faces upcoming expenses that the other two don't.
“But we can still carry on with the original plan,” Hope said.
Armour Mayor Rod Ward said from a scheduling point of view, the project was back on track, and it would take about a year before Ryerson could secure loans for the new fire hall.
“There's still a lot of work to get done before we get shovels in the ground,” Ward said.
All three municipalities agree the new fire hall is the number one priority with Ward adding, “We don't want the project to get stalled.”
“The cost is not going down if we wait,” he said.
“And all we'll be doing is pushing this onto future councils to deal with, and they'll have a more expensive price tag”.
Ward said once the financing is secured and it's time for the municipalities to start paying back their respective shares, there's an option to cope with payback difficulties.
Ward said should Burk's Falls not be able to cover its full share but rather only a portion of its amount, “We'll figure out how to do the split then.”
“If Burk's Falls' share has to drop a little in order to get it done, we'll sort through it and negotiate it at that time”.
A suggestion made at the most recent tri-council meeting was that the present fire hall building, which is located in Burk's Falls and owned by the municipality, could be sold, and the money from the sale could form part of Burk's Falls’ share for the new fire facility.
Hope believes this was an option for the community.
Ward said as work begins to start securing the financing, staff from Armour and Ryerson will also explore other funding options.
However, he notes securing government grants will likely not be one of those options since historically speaking getting grants for fire hall builds has been difficult.
The present firehall was built in 1975, and has it outlived its usefulness, and it's also become difficult to store new fire-fighting equipment it has acquired because of size limitations.
Based on population and number of households for each community, the $3 million split for the new build works out to Armour paying the largest share at $1,435,200.
Burk's Falls would account for $858,000 as its portion, and the remaining amount of $706,800 would be covered by Ryerson.
Rocco Frangione, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: The North Bay Nugget