DIDSBURY – It's been several years in the works but the new fire hall in Didsbury is all finished. The hall, which was jointly paid for by the Town of Didsbury and Mountain View County, was completed on Sept. 28 although the grand opening and open house won't be until Oct. 22.
“We have been operational as of September 28 out of the new hall,” said Todd Paulson, fire prevention officer for Didsbury Fire Department. “We're still moving other non-operational stuff.”
Paulson said they were able to move everything from the old hall over to the new one on Sept. 28.
“It wasn't a big chore because we had a lot of our guys there helping,” he said.
The grand opening of the new fire hall and fire prevention open house will be on Oct. 22 and is open to all. The event will go from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with ribbon cutting at noon.
The star of the show at the open house will be the new fire hall, said Paulson.
“We want taxpayers to come in and see the hall,” he said. “They're the ones who paid for it. We're hoping for a lot of people. We've had big crowds in the past and this year we think we'll have more.”
Paulson said the new hall has been planned since 2013. He said it was a necessity with the growing fire department.
“The hall we were in was starting to get real cramped for us,” he said. “We have more apparatus, more membership. We needed a bigger facility. We actually had some apparatus which we had stored at the town works yard because we just didn't have room for it. It was a space issue.”
Paulson said the new facility is much roomier and has some great new features such as more office space, more training space and a fire pole.
“It's a beautiful facility,” he said. “I really encourage people to come out on the 22nd and check it out.”
The Town of Didsbury contributed just over half of the cost for the new hall, $2.25 million, while Mountain View County pitched in with $1.75 million.
“The old fire hall was not large enough to fit all of the trucks,” said Derek Sutherland, manager of protective services. “We had two trucks stored at (public works). There was not enough room to train inside or out.”
Fire prevention week goes this week from Oct. 9-15. The fire department was hoping to have the grand opening and open house during that time but it just wasn't feasible.
“We pushed our open house back so we could get settled in at our new hall,” he said. “We've still got lots to do so we moved it back a week.”
Paulson said the open house will also feature plenty of fun things to see and do.
“We always open up the trucks,” he said. “We put our equipment and apparatuses out for the people to see. We encourage our members to mingle with people so they get to know who the members are.”
There will also be a number of demonstrations as well as a free barbecue with burgers and hotdogs.
The theme for fire prevention week this year is: don't wait, check the date. “Replace your smoke detector each 10 years,” he said.
“We want to encourage people to check their smoke detectors—if they're old or outdated or they don't have a smoke detector at all—bring your old one down to the fire hall and we'll give you a new one free of charge courtesy of Didsbury Fire Hall.”
