By Mark Squibb/May 19, 2022
Witless Bay council has temporarily shelved plans for construction of a new regional fire hall to more closely consider the financial implications.
Talk of a new regional fire hall began in earnest back in July of 2020. In Budget 2021, the previous council budgeted close to $1 million over the next 10 years for the building of a new regional fire hall. At the time, the Town had anticipated that its million-dollar commitment would leverage a further $2 million contribution from the provincial government.
Although the exact dollar amount wasn’t disclosed, council has since received approval of provincial government funding for the project.
“We did recently find out that an application (for provincial funding) that was made for the new regional fire hall was successful, and so now what we have to do is meet with the town accountant about the financials and with the fire department,” said Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard, who made the motion to defer approval of the new building. “Once we get that in order, we call a special public meeting to approve it. It’s not that we’re not going to approve it, it’s just that we want to make sure we have all the necessary information because we want to go ahead with this.”
Councillor Alex Troake added that it’s important that council do its due diligence as the approval of the fire hall could cost council at least $100,000 a year over the next 10 years.
“And that building might outlive all of us, so we don’t want to make the wrong decision,” said Troake.
In a follow up e-mail, Town Manager Shawn Kavanagh explained that “council was waiting on updated projected costs given a lot has happened with prices since the projections were formulated 18 months or so ago.”
Budget 2021 saw also the Town invest over $222,300 in fire department operations, over and above some $370,730 borrowed earlier in the year to purchase a new tanker truck. 2021 marked the year that the Town hired its first paid fire chief. That role, originally held by Maria Churchill, is now held by Jack Gatherall.
The fire department serves Bay Bulls, Tors Cove, Bauline, Mobile, and Burnt Cove-St Michaels-Bauline East.
