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Additional funds allocated to over-budget Cumberland fire hall design

Council approved the addition of $125,000 for pre-construction work
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The new fire hall will be located on the corner of Cumberland Road and Primrose Street. Photo from Cumberland.ca

Cumberland’s new fire hall is entering the pre-construction stage, but the project’s budget is already coming up short.

With an initial total price tag of $4 million, council approved adding an additional $125,000 to the project for pre-construction elements, taken from the Village’s general accumulated surplus. The pre-construction elements include detailed design and consultation work. The village currently has approximately $1.3 million in unrestricted surplus available.

READ MORE: Cumberland approves conceptual design for new fire hall

At Monday’s council meeting, three out of four councilors carried the motion to allocate more funds to the project, but Coun. Jesse Ketler opposed, saying that they had not yet considered all options.

“We all agree that we definitely need a new fire hall… but I look at this coming back to council as a second chance for us to look at the design of the fire hall,” she said. “I still feel we didn’t do enough to look for partnerships or multi-use commercial or possibly residential.

“I agree with hiring someone for the pre-construction services, but not until after we’ve done what we need to do to exhaust all our options.”

To reach the allotted $4 million, the village had plans to borrow $2 million while the rest would come from developer amenity funds.

Chief administrative officer Sundance Topham said the developer amenity funds are unconfirmed at this time, and Ketler said relying on these funds is worrying.

“We’re relying on this developer amenity fund… which is not secure in any way,” she said. “By cutting off all the other options early in the design process, we’re basically putting this whole $4 million square on the backs of the taxpayers.”

However, the other three councillors agreed the fire hall project is one of their top priorities and they can’t slow it down.

“I think the new fire hall is as important as the other priority projects we’ve got going on right now, which is the water treatment and liquid waste management treatment,” said Coun. Roger Kishi. “We need to keep this moving forward.”

According to Topham’s report, the current fire hall “is not considered structurally suitable to act as an emergency response building in the instance of a significant seismological event.”

In 2016, a two-and-a-half acre parcel between Primose and Kendall Avenue was purchased by the village for the fire hall, and construction is scheduled to start as early as 2020. The design of the building is estimated to take up to a year.

To learn more about the new fire hall, visit https://cumberland.ca/new-fire-hall-construction/