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Issue 37
SERVING THE ENERGY CITY FOR 113 YEARS
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Rockin’ Out On Sunday The members of Blue Rodeo perform for guests at Affinity Place on Nov. 15. The band’s performance brought out a smaller than expected crowd which made up for its size with enthusiasm and energy. Photo by Sam Macdonald.
Council approves purchase of new fire hall By David Willberg dwillberg@estevanmercury.ca
After years of speculation, the Estevan Fire Rescue Service (EFRS) appears to have found its new home. Estevan city council unanimously approved the purchase of Murray GM’s former Estevan dealership location during Monday night’s council meeting. The building will become Estevan’s new fire hall. The purchase will cost $2.3 million. It will cost an estimated $200,000 more to renovate the building so that it can be suitable for the fire department’s needs. Fire Chief Dale Feser said the property stood out for several reasons. It’s in a central location, which allows for a quick response to all areas of the city, as well as the three rural municipalities – Estevan, Benson and Cambria – that the EFRS serves. “We service 1,500 square kilometres of ground, so … we have to make sure access to the outside corridors is easily achieved as well,” said Feser. The new fire hall is also flanked by two arterial roads – 13th Avenue and Souris Avenue North, creating easier access. Currently the fire trucks have to use Third Street and other secondary roads before reaching a main road.
The building is also on the northern half of the CP Rail tracks. Feser noted most residences are now north of the tracks, and future plans for expansion are in the northern end of the city. The size of the building is “exactly” what the fire department was looking for, Feser said, since the EFRS has outgrown their current building, which opened in 1961 and has 6,220 square feet. The building on the former Murray GM lot measures 16,892 square feet. “We have some seasonal equipment, and our second reserve pumper, down at the city yard,” said Feser. “So should we need that equipment, it adds to additional response time. Now, having all that equipment under one roof in a central location, it’s going to decrease the response time that’s needed.” Fire trucks will no longer have to back into the hall off Third Street and disrupt traffic, the chief said. Now they can back into the building from the parking lot. And both command vehicles can be parked indoors rather than outdoors during the winter months. The fire department was also on the verge of using all the 32 lockers that are available in their current building. Their new home will allow them to have additional locker spaces, and consequently
add more firefighters. Feser hopes they can move into the building this summer. The firefighters will be participating in work bees to prepare the building. A couple of overhead doors will have to be installed so that all of the fire trucks can be stored. They will also need to modify the offices to make them larger, and the former parts area will be transformed into a training space. The area that was used as the show room could be transformed into a museum, Feser said, with an old fire truck and other memorabilia from local and provincial firefighting history. Snow removal is one issue that Feser said has been brought up. Clearing snow is a relatively quick and simple process at their current location, but they will have to remove snow from a large parking lot once they move. A new building for the fire department has been discussed for several years. There was land set aside in the Dominion Heights subdivision in north Estevan for a new fire hall to be constructed, leading to speculation of whether Estevan would operate with one or two fire halls. Feser believes it would have been logistically difficult to have two fire halls, and a second fire hall would have doubled the operational and
Murray GM’s former home in Estevan will be the new fire hall for the Estevan Fire Rescue Service. equipment costs of the department. Purchasing the former Murray GM building will carry a cost now, but city manager Jeff Ward expects it will save money in the long run. The city will take out $3.5 million in new debt this year to pay for the $2.5 million cost of the purchase and the renovation, as well as the $1 million needed for improvements to King Street. Since this purchase came together relatively quickly, it was not included in the 2017 budget. But Ward stressed that constructing a new fire hall would have cost between $7 million and $10 million, so this was what he called “a strategic move.” Part of the building’s appeal, Ward added, was that they won’t have to spend a lot of money on renovations. “It’s pretty much turnkey ready. The offices in the
front will work for everything we need,” said Ward. “The apparatus space in the back is definitely large enough. It’s a wide open space. Mayor Roy Ludwig said there were preliminary discussions with Feser about the former Murray GM site last year, but nothing was seriously discussed until after Murray GM moved to their new home on Kensington Avenue late last year. It was not a decision that council took lightly, the mayor said. “Council thought we have the opportunity coming up … and we feel it’s the right opportunity for the city to take advantage of this,” said Ludwig. Councillor Dennis Moore called this move a “win-win situation” for the city and its residents. “Looking long-term, we are going to be saving not hundreds of thousands,
but millions of dollars,” said Moore. The land in Dominion Heights that had been earmarked for the new fire hall can now be sold, recouping some of the cost of purchasing the Murray GM land. An engineering review is still needed to make sure there aren’t any glaring problems with the building, but Feser, Ward and council don’t expect there will be issues, as their walk-throughs haven’t indicated any problems. Feser is hopeful the building can serve as Estevan’s fire hall for 30 to 40 years. And while the fire department hasn’t vacated their present home, there are plans being discussed for the building. Ludwig said they are looking at ways it could be used for the Estevan Police Service’s needs, since the EPS has outgrown the dimensions of the current police station.
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