Welland Fire Hall funding

[projekktor id=’23360′]

Welland’s King Street Fire Hall has seen better days. the city is spending over 80 thousand dollars this year to keep the building from breaking down.

The King Street Fire Hall was built more than 60 years ago.

It had many uses before becoming the central command station for Welland’s Fire Department including the town hall for the former Crowland Township, a police station, a jail and recreation centre.

The room is tight. Every inch of the space has a purpose. Some rooms even two like the pantry, is where staff also store medical supplies.

City engineer, Sal Iannello estimates repair costs over the next 5 years at a quarter of a million dollars.

Structural problems have also slowed fire crews from responding to 911 calls.

The solution for the fire department’s lack of space could be found less than a kilometre away from the existing fire hall.

The city purchased a plot of land on King Street and Lincoln Street nearly 2 years ago.

The Fire Chief hopes the 4.1 acre lot will be home to one of the city’s two new fire stations, which it hopes to build in 2019.

Preliminary designs have already been done for the new fire hall, but reaching that lofty goal will be difficult.

The facility is expected to cost 20 million dollars.

The city is hoping to secure funding from both the Provincial and Federal Government.