CRD holds public meeting on potential Red Bluff Firehall Replacement in Quesnel area

There was an open house last (Wednesday) night on the potential replacement of the Red Bluff Firehall in the Quesnel Fringe Fire Protection area.

Mary Sjostrom, the Cariboo Regional District Director for Area A, says they had a decent turnout and she is confident that those people left more informed than when they came in.

“I am hoping that the people that didn’t come or didn’t feel that they needed to come, I hope they understand that one way or the other we have to do something with this old hall, and my hope is that we will have a new build and we won’t have to displace the truck and find another place because we have to keep a truck on top of the hill. But if this is not successful we’re going to have to renovate but we’re going to have to renovate in pieces. The reason we’re not proposing to renovate though is it is way more money. It’s over 5 million dollars to renovate and the you still have an old building, so I’m hoping that people understand that.”

Quesnel Fire Chief Ron Richert was also at the meeting and talked about how some people didn’t understand the relationship between the Quesnel Fire Department and Red Bluff.

“A lot of people think that the Red Bluff Fire Hall is the Red Bluff Fire Department which is not the case. The number two fire hall is Red Bluff is owned by the CRD but the Quesnel Fire Department has an agreement and signed an agreement years ago back in the 60’s and 70’s with the CRD to provide fire protection in those areas, so we are all one. So basically we operate all three halls, it’s hall one, hall two and hall three. Should we get a call up in the Red Bluff area the entire Quesnel Fire Department responds to that call, vise versa if its downtown, all the halls respond to that area downtown.”

Richert says the current hall is outdated.

“This hall was built in 1981 with two bays. Obviously, with infrastructure expansion throughout the Cariboo Regional District and up on top of the hill here we are expanding, so it’s time after 40 something years for this hall we do need an upgraded hall with proper facilities. We would like to add additional two bays in order to provide more apparatus in this area. We have more trucks and we need places to house these trucks.”

A referendum will take place on October 26th asking residents in the Red Bluff, Dragon Lake, and Richbar areas, as well as portions of Two Mile Flat, for permission to borrow the money for the project.

There will also be advance voting opportunities on October 16th and the 21st at the Quesnel & District Arts and Recreation Centre.

General voting day will be at Ecole Red Bluff Lhtako Elementary.