It was a full day of information sharing, discussions and a key decision point for the first meeting of the Fire Hall Technical Building Advisory Committee (TBAC) held in Council Chambers on Monday, January 21st.
This committee of Council comprises four professional members of the public, three Advisory Select Committee (ASC) members, four elected officials (or their appointees) – two from the Town of Creston and one from each Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) Fire Protection Contract areas, and one member from Creston Fire Rescue.
The TBAC reviewed presentations by workshop facilitator Ernie Polsom from Firewise Consulting on the process to date, including the extensive work of the previous Fire Hall Advisory Select Committee (ASC), the Fire Hall Referendum question, community engagement, and committee decision-making.
Following a discussion regarding the architectural design process, the TBAC discussed options to move the Creston Fire Hall project forward. Specifically, the TBAC considered whether to ‘start from scratch’ on the design or update the existing design work that had been done in 2015.
Mr. Polsom reviewed the space requirements for the Fire Hall that was recommended by the ASC and adopted by Council. After a review of the previous design work by Johnston Davidson Architecture, on hand to answer questions, the motion was made and passed unanimously to use this design development report and move forward. In passing this motion, the committee considered the desire to move the project forward with purpose, the commitment of Council to be good stewards of taxpayers, and the opportunity to save both time and money.
Speaking in behalf of the TBAC, Mr. Polsom reported: “The committee members felt it would be in the community’s best interests to see how the previous design work could be used, given the significant investment that the Town has already undertaken and recognizing that significant updates will be required to address Code changes and to ensure the use of materials reflect the best use of project dollars.”
This includes updating the previous design development report to meet recent changes to the BC Building Code, re-assessing the cost of building materials such as concrete, wood, and steel as well as revisiting the storage space requirements for the Fire Hall to name a few.
At their January 22nd Council Meeting, Mr. Polsom presented an update to Town Council regarding the discussion at the TBAC workshop, including the decision to have the existing design drawings updated, given the previous investment made in preparing these reports.
A copy of the meeting minutes, Mr. Polsom’s PowerPoint presentation and related reports will be posted on the 2019 Fire Hall Project page on the Town’s website at www.creston.ca.
The next TBAC meeting is scheduled for March 1, 2019. The agenda will be posted closer to the date.
