Contract awarded for Lavington fire hall

By Jennifer Smith -- Morning Star Staff

Oct 05 2007

With construction of one already underway, Coldstream is fired up for work to begin on its second new fire hall.

Tender has been awarded for construction of the Lavington Fire Hall, to replace the existing 1972 building on School Road. Work is expected to start almost immediately.

The building of a new Coldstream hall has been underway since August on Aberdeen Road with work expected to be completed by early spring.

The same company awarded the $2.095 million Coldstream project, S.J. Pasechnik and Son, has been awarded the $1.393 million Lavington job.

“Now we’re under the projected $4 million,” said Mayor Gary Corner.

Initially the Lavington hall was expected to cost $950,000 and the Coldstream hall was estimated at $2.3 million. The borrowing of $4 million, allowing room for increased building costs, was warranted through referendum in November.

Tenders for the Lavington hall all came in well over the expected cost, but after working with the approved tender a better price was found.

“We’ve gone back and trimmed a few things,” said Corner.

“We didn’t change the building or anything, we changed a few of the materials and we’ll do the landscaping later.”

Therefore the $1.393 million price tag is much cheaper than the lowest bid received.

“That’s about as cheap as we can get it done in today’s world.”

The new 6,000- to 7,000-square-foot Lavington hall replaces the existing building on its current site, which more than doubles the department’s space.

That poses some problems during construction for firefighters needing a place to store their equipment and provide service.

“It’s going to be a challenge that’s for sure,” said Terry Garrington, Lavington fire chief.

But accommodations have been worked out with a private land owner to store the trucks and gear.

The Lavington glass plant (O-I Canada Corporation), Tolko and both the Coldstream and Lumby fire departments have offered space for the Lavington firefighters to hold their meetings and do training.

“They’ll still have a full service department,” said Wendy Kay, Coldstream’s chief administrative officer. “Service shouldn’t be affected at all.”

Construction of the Lavington hall is expected to take at least five months.

“It’ll be nice when it’s done, that’s for sure,” said Garrington.

The new 11,700-square-foot Coldstream hall is being built on a former district-owned residential site on Aberdeen Road, in front of the public works yard. It will be nearly triple the size of the existing 1960 hall.

Once construction is completed and the department has moved in, the old Coldstream hall will likely provide relief space for the public works department.