New fire station approved by town council

By Ron Giofu

A new fire station has been approved for Amherstburg.

Town council approved a new fire hall and it will be built on the Libro Centre property. It will combine the existing Station 1 and Station 3, which are located on Sandwich St. S. and in Malden Centre respectively. The aging fire halls have had numerous issues in recent years, with fire chief Bruce Montone identifying several in his report. Station 1 has no back-up power, bay doors that allow rain and snow through, a leaky roof, no outdoor training space, accessibility problems among other issues while Station 3 has no shower facilities, a limited septic system, small bay doors that don’t accommodate larger apparatus, cramped quarters, cracks in the wall, a bad roof and storage space and other problems.

Montone outlined the history of the service to town council and noted he undertook a new fire master plan when he took over as chief in 2017. Part of that was dealing with aging infrastructure, and a report and plan was presented in August 2022. Costs, and the pending municipal election, shelved the project at that time with administration also tasked to consider reducing the costs.

“The estimated cost for this project is $9,801,500, plus non-recoverable HST, plus on-site engineering cost, and is in addition to the $414,300 already approved by council for the work completed to date and which is required for the next steps to issue and evaluate tenders,” Montone wrote in his report.

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