By Mark Squibb
Witless Bay council last week voted to go ahead with a feasibility study to help determine a more up-to-date price for a new, regional fire hall.
Councillor Jacob Hayden moved that the Town undertake the feasibility study based on a 70/30 cost split with the Province.
The Town’s portion will be $27,666, plus tax.
“We did have a feasibility study done back in 2019, but as everybody knows, 2019 prices do not reflect 2024 prices,” said Hayden.
In 2022, Witless Bay council accepted $2.4 million in cost-shared funding from the provincial government for the construction of a new fire hall and agreed to pay its share of the project, which at that time was $815,640. That funding was based on the 2019 feasibility study.
Hayden said that conducting a new feasibility study will not negate that funding, but project overruns would fall to the Town, and so it would be best to get an updated idea of just how much the project will cost before moving ahead with construction.
