The Town of Central Butte’s fire department has outgrown its current fire hall, and after two years of planning and designing, it is ready to unveil a new $1.1 million building project.
The organization is holding an information night on Wednesday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the town’s legion to inform residents about the project. The department will discuss the building’s design, its location, the company that will construct it, the dates for when construction will start and end, the amenities the new hall will have, the fundraising model and the fundraising goal.
Before the info night starts, however, the organization will hold an open house at its current fire hall from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. to discuss the building’s constraints and why it no longer meets the department’s needs.
Fire Chief Myron Fowler said that unveiling the project is “rather exciting” because he has spent plenty of time speaking with other fire departments about what they have, what they wished they had or what they could have added when they constructed a new building.
“Doing a fire hall is a little different than doing a garage or a farm shop … . It just has different requirements and things we need,” he continued. “So, learning all those things and figuring out what we didn’t want to miss out on or things that weren’t worth it was a big part.
“We’re very happy with the design we got and hoping that it will serve us well for the next 40, 50 (or) 60 years.”
The biggest advantage of the new building is it will provide more space for the fire department to train and hold gear, as the current venue “is jam-packed” and has grown too small to accommodate the organization’s equipment and practice needs, Fowler said.
The old hall was built to hold two trucks, but the department has four units that it packs inside. The organization was forced to remove its meeting area 10 years ago to accommodate a fourth truck.
The new venue will be 540 square metres (6,000 square feet) in size and will have five vehicle bays. Furthermore, it will have a new training space and meeting area that will allow the department to set up equipment and leave it out over several days.
This additional space will ensure firefighters can train and learn throughout the week instead of on specific nights that may not fit their schedules. It will also ensure firefighters can access all the equipment easily and quickly when responding to calls.
“The training will be much better, plus, the last couple of years we’ve added an extensive amount of equipment, with extra Jaws (of Life) equipment,” Fowler said. “We now have ice rescue equipment we store in the hall … . We will (also) be looking at purchasing grain entrapment equipment, which takes a whole lot of space.”
He added that this extra space would allow the department to expand the hall if necessary.
River Grove Homes from Outlook will construct the new hall, which will be located on Highway 19 south of the Co-op. The company plans to start construction in September and hand over the building keys by next spring.
The building will cost $1.1 million to build, with the fire department aiming to raise roughly $300,000 from the community. Fundraising activities will begin in September, with a duelling pianos event scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9 at the school.
Fowler added that the remaining money is expected to come from other area communities that have fire-related agreements with the department.
