STRATFORD, P.E.I. — Members of Charlottetown city council continue their fact-finding mission towards building a satellite fire station in the city’s north end.
Mayor Philip Brown and councillors, who sit on the strategic priorities and intergovernmental affairs committee, were recently given a tour of the new fire hall in Stratford by Stratford Mayor Steven Ogden, deputy CAO Jeremy Crosby and Kevin Reynolds, a firefighter and town planner.
Elected officials in Charlottetown have been talking about the need for a third fire station for more than a decade but construction hasn't started.
The city has decided on a site, on Malpeque Road between the Atlantic Cat dealership and Moore Well Drilling Inc. The new station will also have access onto Sherwood Road.
A few years ago the city paid $870,000 for a 4.5-acre parcel of land while the 2020-21 operating budget contained $165,000 to have the building designed.
Coun. Terry Bernard, vice-chairman of the committee, said the tour of the Stratford fire hall, which houses the Cross Roads Fire Department, was designed to give the city an idea of how big it wants to go with its satellite station.
Reynolds said the fire bays alone take up about 12,000 square feet in the new Stratford Emergency Centre, which also houses Island EMS, the RCMP detachment and meeting space.
“In the old fire station we couldn’t open the doors of the trucks without hitting each other,’’ Reynolds said, referring to the old fire hall on Mason Road.
Under the new regulations there is plenty of room between trucks, probably enough to drive a car through.
An insurance underwriters report, which came out a number of years ago, indicated fire coverage was becoming a greater concern due to the city’s growth in the neighbourhoods of Winsloe, West Royalty and in the West Royalty Industrial Park areas.
Coun. Alanna Jankov, chairwoman of the committee, said council also remains committed to keeping Station 2 in Sherwood open due to the growth in the East Royalty area.
There is still no decision on when construction of the satellite station could happen but it wasn’t listed in the current budget.
