Fire Chief Gary Monahan appeared before Huntsville Council at its June 24 meeting to ask for permission for staff to engage in discussions with landowners about purchasing land for the future relocation of the current fire station on Payne Drive.
Monahan told council that more space is required to accommodate a growing staff and equipment. He also noted in his report to council that the station is located on the same property as a successful commercial enterprise that ships products on tractor-trailers from that location.
“Tractor-trailers regularly impede the response of apparatus as shown in the document attached. During winter conditions the Tractor-trailers have issues exiting Payne Drive onto Centre Street due to the grade. During morning drop off and afternoon pick up at the schools our volunteer firefighters are regularly delayed getting to the fire station because of traffic congestion from 2 school zones located on West Road and Centre Street. These traffic delays have had a negative impact on response times,” according to Monahan’s report.
His report also noted that the building is sinking in one corner. Monahan told the council that with the amount of development the municipality is experiencing, land is slowly disappearing so finding an adequate property is becoming more urgent.
“Staff are requesting permission to engage in discussions with property owners to identify potential land for a future fire hall as there is limited choice for an ideal location to best service the residents. With development continuing to move north, the ideal location for a new station would be located in an area with easy access to Highway 60, Highway 11 and downtown and be approximately 3 acres in size,” according to his report.
Monahan noted that the 2019 Development Charges Study includes a provision for a new fire station sometime in 2028 at a cost of $2.25 Million but preliminarily estimates for the amounts proposed in the Development Charges update are approximately $9.6 million for the new building.
“The Fire equipment reserve has a 2023 ending balance of $1.1 million for the replacement of existing fire capital, however this does not include any funds allocated for a new building. The ending amount of the Development Charges collected for Fire Services was $590,362 as at December 31, 2023,” according to his report.
“I think that’s a big demand on the Town [but] we have to have,” said Councillor Monty Clouthier. “This is a huge step for us, but I mean, we’re taking a lot of different big steps as a council, but I think this is one that we definitely, definitely need.”
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock concurred. “This is a preliminary first step, and I think it’s great that the chief has initiated this.”
Councillor Helena Renwick wanted to know what would happen if land is not found. “I think it’s not if; I think we need to find land… I just think that we’ve outgrown the size of the fire station for our apparatus, for our staff, and the fact that we can’t get the volunteers into that fire station. It’s a need. We’ll have to find land somewhere,” said Monahan.
Council voted unanimously in favour of giving staff the green light to conduct a preliminary land review and engage land owners.
You can find Monahan’s report, HERE (pdf).
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Yes, Huntsville is growing and we should all welcome every opportunity to prepare and plan our infrastructure appropriately for the normal day to day needs as well as emergency services.
Being ‘downtown’ should not be abandoned lightly, and any new location will come with its own limitations as well.
More planning and community input is needed to reflect the encompassing emergency response services our town requires; mitigation of future development and its effects ‘downstream’ on pre-existing dwellings and businesses; who wins and loses, and of course the tax levy to accommodate ideas and ‘favorable’ purchases.
Our town and district ‘rainy day’ savings account is nowhere near what is required to maintain the assets we have, nor what’s needed to replace them.
I welcome the insight and discussion.
As a former fire fighter in LOB I know how equipment sort of “accumulates” as time passes and technology advances.
I do hope that perhaps the old hall can be used for quite a while longer as a sort of “back up” facility to house equipment of a seasonal or less used nature. It is still a good building and being purpose built as a fire hall it would make sense to do this I think.
For the town the cost to do this would be minimal as they do not pay taxes and maybe the heat can be set lower and that sort of thing but still make good use of the place.
Just a thought.
Good luck Chief Monahan !!!