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New fire hall for east Maple Ridge back on the books

Cost will ring in at $15 million if approved
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(Contributed) Conceptual drawings of Fire Hall No. 4, planned for Albion.

Maple Ridge could be on its way to getting a fourth fire hall, which would cost about $15 million – more than double the estimate for the project when it was first considered more than a decade ago.

Part of the cost increase is related to an expansion of the building to accommodate the City of Maple Ridge’s computer servers. That boosted the cost of the project by $1.7 million.

But most of the increase is cost escalation from the earlier rough estimate from about 15 years ago, said city chief administrator Paul Gill.

Council, on Tuesday, was to look at a report that showed the latest proposal for the project, which was put on hold so the fire department could focus on others, such as the $10-million renovation of Fire Hall No. 1 on Dewdney Trunk Road.

“Over the last period of time, we’ve had other priorities come up,” said Gill.

Fire Hall No. 4 and Training Centre would be located at 112th Avenue and 240th Street, to serve the growing suburbs in east Maple Ridge, or Albion. It would be staffed by paid-on-call members.

According to the city, in 2016, 14 per cent of the total number of calls to the Maple Ridge fire department (including 22 per cent of structure fire calls), came from Albion. The area now accounts for about 600 calls per year.

The new building would include room to store the City of Maple Ridge’s computer servers and a training centre, along with a playground or park on the grounds next to the building.

Money for the project has already been set aside, with the fire department capital acquisition reserve providing $8.6 million.

Another $6 million would be borrowed to make up the total.

Council previously approved borrowing the $6 million, to be repaid over 10 years, from the fire department capital acquisition reserve.

If council approves an architectural services contract and finance bylaw change, final designs for the project are to be done in July.