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May soon be time for new fire hall, says King

By Mark Squibb/March 31, 2022

It may be the right time for Holyrood to consider building a new fire station.

That’s according to councillor Bruce King.

“Right now, the roof leaks, and there’s no insulation in the attic, and we’re paying out a lot of money in heat bills because the heaters cut in and they don’t cut out,” King told his colleagues at last week’s council meeting. The department is looking into how much it would cost to fix the roof and insulate the building, while also trying to figure out how to cut back on the heating bill.

But the answer, said King, may be to build a new station.

“The fire hall has been there now since, I think, the 70’s, and it needs a lot of repairs, and maybe we should explore the concept of a new fire hall, somewhere down the road,” said King. “The Town is growing by leaps and bounds, the industrial park is growing by leaps and bounds, we now have four full time firefighters, the talk of regionalization has popped up again. So, maybe this is the time that we should start looking at the possibility of building a new fire hall here in Holyrood, and replacing the old building. So, that’s something we’re looking at and going to be investigating in the weeks and months to come.”

Just last month, the town completed a $121,000 extension to the fire hall. The cost was split on a 90/10 basis with the provincial government paying the bigger portion. It allowed for additional training space.

“On the fire hall, there was a concern around energy efficiency, with the roof and with insulation,” said councillor Steve Winsor. “I’m wondering why a deficiency like that was not addressed at the time of renovation, because that would have been a great opportunity to do it, because we’ll end up paying more money now.”

Windsor said he can’t see the town building a new fire hall at the moment.

King said he’s not a hundred percent sure which portion of the building is problematic.

“There’s been bits and pieces built onto the fire hall over the years, almost like a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but I will confirm with the fire chief exactly where these issues are,” he said.

Later in the meeting, King confirmed the leaks occurred in the older part of the building.

“The new section of the fire hall was completed using COVID stimulus monies, and there was no money left over to complete any upgrades to the rest of the building,” said King.

In other news regarding the department, firefighters are having an issue receiving notifications on their pagers, King reported. The station is working with Bell Alliant and hopes to resolve it in the next couple of months.

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