Neepawa unveils fire hall location

Details

Published on Friday, December 4, 2015

L to R: Deputy mayor Dean Dietrich, Mayor Adrian de Groot, Beth Montgomery and Neepawa Fire Department Chief Scott Gibson

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The Town of Neepawa has unveiled the location for a new 10,000-square-foot fire hall. Mayor Adrian de Groot was joined by councillors, firefighters and enthusiastic members of the community at the ceremonial sod turning on Friday, Dec. 4. The proposed location for the new facility is on the northeast section of the former CN property, near Mill Street. 

During the ceremony, de Groot noted that this is a day that has been a long time coming. He thanked the current members of council and the administration for their efforts on this project, as well as former municipal officials for their dedication over the years to this endeavour.

As for the design of the new fire hall, it’s still in the preliminary stages of creation. Town officials and Fire Chief Scott Gibson will work with Calnistky Associates Architects Inc., the company recently selected to come up with the proposal. De Groot noted that they’re looking forward to this next step in the process.

“At this point, we’re working with the architects. We’ve given them some ideas as to what we’d like to see and they’ll help us to create a 10,000 square foot facility that will meet our needs,” said de Groot. “We’re trying to target for March or April [of 2016], to have a design ready. To have tender ready documents. If we have that prepared by very early spring, then we can certainly go to tender and depending on what the marketplace is, I’m optimistic we could see [full scale construction] in September or October.”

Fire Chief Scott Gibson said that he’s very excited to see that something is happening with the proposal.

“This is exciting. It’s a new start. There are still many steps to go through, but this is the beginning. Hopefully, within the next year or so, we have a new home for the fire department,” stressed Gibson. “[The fire department] is happy with the choice of location. There have been many discussions regarding the site. We like it, because it provides good access to rural locations, but also into town. We’ll be away from the downtown core area, where there is some traffic congestion during the day. We like it out here. We think it’ll be a good future home.”

As for the future, Mayor de Groot remained optimistic that this new facility could serve as a regional fire services option.

“I’m very confident that we’ll be talking to our neighbouring communities and we will have a regional fire department, I’m sure of it. We’ve already had one meeting and as a result of that, that’s why the building is going to be the way it is,” said de Groot. “We want to make this a hub. Certainly, we want to supply the training here, so that’s where we’re at.”

A desire for a new fire hall in Neepawa have been part of the town’s capital plan for nearly 20 years.