The fire station is seen here on Thursday February 20, 2020 in St. Marys, Ont. Terry Bridge/Stratford Beacon Herald/Postmedia Network TERRY BRIDGE / TERRY BRIDGE/THE BEACON HERALD
ST. MARYS – Construction is expected to start soon on a $3-million renovation of the St. Marys fire station.
The upgrades include new gender-neutral washrooms and change areas, expanded storage, and a new ventilation system, emergency generator and communications tower. Overall, it will modernize the 55-year-old building and improve health and safety conditions, town officials said. The building’s footprint will be enlarged to allow room for future growth while the bay doors will be moved to face James Street instead of the parking lot.
“We’re pretty confident about the project all in all,” St. Marys Mayor Al Strathdee said Thursday.
Five companies bid on the project, and London-based K and L Construction was picked at $3.1 million, including HST.
“We felt the bidding was pretty fair. We felt we got some good pricing. We had a lot of interest,” Strathdee said.
During construction, a temporary fire hall will be set up at the town’s municipal operations centre. There will be no impact on response times, officials said.
Brent Kittmer, the town’s chief administrator, said the 30-week, weather-dependent project is expected to start in late March and be wrapped up by the end of October.
“Every construction schedule is always highly optimistic, but for us we just want to be fully relocated back into that building before the snow-clearing season starts,” he said. “It would just be a lot simpler if there wasn’t fire trucks and snow plows mixing.”
Two separate committees comprising fire officials, staff, councillors and volunteers have been looking into what the best options were for the past year-plus. They considered relocating, but found the current spot was the best after conducting time trials, Strathdee said. Demolishing and building new was also on the table, but renovating was the preferred path.
Town officials approved the project earlier this week with a unanimous vote at a council meeting.
Richard Anderson, the town’s fire chief, was not available for comment Thursday but, in a statement, said everything in the fire service is expanding.
“The vehicles are getting larger, more equipment is required – and the responsibilities of firefighters are increasing, too,” he said. “This new facility will address the growing needs of the department and the communities of St. Marys and Perth South.”
Link to original article on stratfordbeaconherald.com: ‘We’re pretty confident about the project,’ mayor says of fire hall renos