Creston residents will have another chance to vote on the borrowing for a new fire hall, Town Council announced last Wednesday.
A referendum will be held in conjunction with the October 20 local government elections.
“Council has directed staff to prepare a draft Loan Authorization Bylaw that will be sent to the Province for review prior to receiving three readings by Council,” Mayor Ron Toyota said. “Following three readings, the Bylaw would be sent back to the Province for inspection and final approval, which is an approximately six-week process. This is the first step in the lengthy referendum approval process.”
Nearly a year ago, on December 9, nearly 60 percent of those voted rejected a plan to borrow up to $6.1 million to replace the outdated and flawed current fire hall, which was once an Overwaitea grocery store. Following that defeat, Council went back to the drawing board, creating a Community Fire Hall Advisory Select Committee and appointing citizen representatives from about two dozen applications. A lengthy series of meetings preceded a pair of open houses last month.
Toyota said that the referendum, in accordance with provincial legislation, will once again ask for the approval of a specified maximum borrowing amount. If approved, grants and other cost savings will be sought, and a final design will be created.
“Similar to getting a pre-approved mortgage, the purpose of a referendum is to seek voter permission to borrow funds for a new fire hall,” he said. “If we receive voter permission the next step would be to invest in the building design, tendering and construction process. We clearly heard from our community that they would like to have input into what a new fire hall would look like for the Creston Valley. We plan to incorporate this input by setting up a new Fire Hall Building Advisory Committee to help oversee the process and make recommendations to ensure that is truly a community process.
“If voters approve the borrowing, our goal would be to apply for grants and explore other cost savings into order to build a fire hall at the best possible price.”
Council has also directed staff to continue to inform and engage the community throughout the summer and into the fall, Toyota said. He complimented the work of the ASC in gathering public input into the fire hall project.
“This group of dedicated volunteers has been very thorough in engaging community perspective.”
Earlier this year the existing fire hall was inspected by WorkSafeBC, which lead to the Town of Creston being served with orders to address numerous deficiencies that ranged from lack of decontamination facilities to air quality within the building.
“The Town of Creston is deeply committed to ensuring the health and safety of its residents and fire service personnel, as well as continued public information and engagement throughout this process,” Toyota said. “We want to be sure people have the information that they need to make an informed decision come October. Continuing to work closely with the ASC, we plan to be listening to the community and providing transparent and factual information, and answering any and all questions.”
Toyota said on Tuesday that he expects the referendum request will be for less money than the 2017 referendum because the fire protection contract with Erickson includes a contribution toward fire hall costs.
