A $14-million project to build a new fire station and public works operations centre in Bradford West Gwillimbury got a formal go-ahead Tuesday, BWG council voted.
Construction is expected to begin as early as October at one of the properties involved, 3541 Line 11, and by summer 2019 at the fire station’s current location at 75 Melbourne Dr.
“We’re almost in the optimum location in the urban area to maintain a four-minute response time,” said Fire Chief Kevin Gallant. “I’d like to see it built as soon as possible. We are really stretched thin.”
Gallant, who helped put together the design for a new fire station, said he originally designed it as a one-storey facility as it is now. To accommodate the town’s new plans, he will have to redesign it as a two-storey operation.
“I don’t know how those changes are going to impact (the overall plan),” he said.
BWG’s CAO Geoff McKnight said he expects, even with the changes, the project to come in under its current budget, noting there will be savings from having less roofing and foundation area by building upward.
The town had originally set aside $9.4 million for a new fire station in Bradford and estimated the cost of a new joint operations centre for public works at $31 million.
Under the new plan, it will cost $6.4 million for the fire station, $6.5 million for transportation services (including an urban operations centre and a rural works yard), and $1 million for water services.
More than $9 million of the overall total will be funded by development charges and the rest by long-term debt and the “sale” of the fire station back to the town, according to the report.
Once work is complete, a town-used storage facility on County Road 4 will be abandoned, saving $30,000 in rent a year.
“It’s something this community is in desperate need for,” said Deputy Mayor James Leduc.
“It was a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle,” added Mayor Rob Keffer. “We can’t underestimate how important this project is.”
The town has known for years its current Melbourne Drive fire station is inadequate — undersized for the amount of equipment and firefighters required by a growing community.
The station is 892 square metres, but a master plan study concluded the fire service needs 1,765 square metres in Bradford.
Along with the BWG Fire and Emergency Services, the property at 75 Melbourne Dr. houses the town’s water and transportation services’ urban operations.
Construction of a new facility can be done “without any significant disruption of service to current Fire Operations,” but the water and transportation departments will be “significantly impacted,” read a report by Terry Foran, the town’s director of community services.
The buildings that house them must be demolished, so displaced staff would have to move to another location.
The water department can be permanently moved “without any interruption of service” if new structures are built at the Line 11 property, read the report.
Next steps for the project include hiring a firm for some architectural design and contractor services before construction can start.
The project is part of a multi-year facilities initiative, which includes a second fire station to serve the Highway 400 employment lands and Bond Head by 2022, at a cost of $4.4 million, as well as a $35-million consolidated administration centre to house staff currently working in 10 different locations at eight different sites.
