A new fire hall will soon be built in the Hamlet of La Glace. The County of Grande Prairie has invested $1.925 million dollars into the project which will be built next to UFA Petroleum and replace the 24-year-old hall the department has outgrown.
A review was done in March 2017 that determined the current facility needs to be replaced. Reeve Leanne Beaupre says a larger hall was needed to accommodate a growing population and fire department.
“The fire hall itself that serves the community presently is a good functioning fire hall, it’s just too small. Every year the equipment gets bigger especially for the field of service that is needed in this area.”
The project was originally budgeted at $1.57 million based on the new Sexsmith Fire Hall, but costs have increases since then. County Regional Fire Services Fire Chief Dan Verdun says the new hall will have larger areas to house bigger equipment and new recruits.
“In sheer design, this fire hall is updated comparatively to the existing one both in size and dedicated areas for training, office space and the accommodation of our larger apparatuses. Things that were not necessarily considered in ’94 when we built it.”
Verdun says that with the addition of the new hall, the department will be able to better serve the community.
“It allows us to better train, be more proficient in the skills that we have and simply just provide better service to ratepayers and visitors to the Hamlet.”
The new fire hall will be able to house up to 25 firefighters and will have space for six trucks. The building is scheduled to be completed by spring of 2019.