Should a fire hall be built in Dead Man’s Flats, the Municipal District of Bighorn will only entertain the idea of a two-bay first response hall with a small price tag, at least in the short-term.
Bighorn administration will work with River’s Bend Development Inc. partners into next month on a design for a two-bay fire hall, its cost and a proposed site in the booming hamlet. The report is expected to be back before council at April’s regular meeting. The developers proposed to shoulder the financial load of construction and equipment estimated at $100,000.
Council directed administration last month to develop the concept in principle and bring a potential plan back to council on Tuesday (March 10) with details on how a fire hall in Dead Man’s would benefit the MD as a whole.
The first report brought back, though, didn’t meet council’s expectations.
Bighorn Chief Administrative Officer Martin Buckley said through many conversations with Fire Chief Rick Lyster, who assisted in preparing the report, a larger fire hall was in the best interest to Bighorn as a whole, although not so much financially speaking, councillors pointed out.
“This bamboozled me,” Councillor Erik Butters said about the report. “I’m quite surprised where this has got to. We started out trying to fulfill a need to have an initial attack … and we wind up with a million dollar proposal. It’s surprising to me.”
Reeve Dene Cooper thinks it’s important to have a long range planning, but right now is looking at current needs in the MD.
“I am aware that there has been serious thought into this report … our intentions are to look at first response. We have a very successful fire contract with Canmore, but we know we don’t have a 10-minute response time,” Cooper said.
Bighorn and Canmore have an agreement where Canmore provides fire response services to DMF and Harvie Heights, for which Bighorn pays an annual service fee. The new proposal is an exploration to view all options, the MD has stated, and it is quite satisfied with the current agreement.
River’s Bend developers initially brought forward a delegation to council last month after it was determined in late 2014 that DMF didn’t fall into Canmore’s 10-minute fire response zone.
The Alberta Building Code requires additional fire protection measures for structures outside a 10-minute response time of local fire departments and that municipalities map out that area. Because DMF doesn’t fall into the 10-minute map, the developers would have to meet other safety priorities at an additional cost to home buyers, estimated at $10,000 to $20,000.
The increase would undermine the cost-efficient approach the developers are trying to take for the residential development.
Councillors chose to stay away from a larger hall proposal and endorsed the idea for administration to look into a two-bay first response fire hall that would accommodate residential and light-commercial development in DMF and neighbouring communities.
A fire hall in DMF could serve approximately 600 residents in DMF and Lac Des Arcs with first response service.
One of the main concerns brought forward by administration regarded volunteer firefighters and if the MD would be able to man a completed DMF station.
River’s Bend partner Frank Kernick said they have been recruiting for the possible positions and expect it to be well manned. Kernick added that first residential occupancy in River’s Bend is three to four months away.
