For the Mounties and firefighters who will call it home, a new protective services building in Blackfalds will be all about access.
A sod-turning on Tuesday at the site on South Street and Vista Trail had officials gesturing to nearby Hwy 597 and Hwy 2.
“I think it was always a concern to know you were phoning 911 or the RCMP for assistance, and if you’re phoning at 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and they’re in downtown Red Deer, how can they respond quickly if they have to drive through the city?” said Blackfalds Mayor Melodie Stol of the Red Deer Rural RCMP detachment’s response times to her town.
Supt. Brian Simpson, commanding officer of Red Deer City and Rural RCMP, said tests had been run on response times from the rural detachment’s current location on 55th Street in Red Deer and from the new site in Blackfalds, and the latter was quicker.
“This is an excellent location with access to the major and secondary highways,” he said.
The Red Deer Rural detachment will move its entire compliment of 18 staff members to Blackfalds.
Blackfalds Fire/Rescue fire chief Steven Woodrow said the new site was “a blessing” because his crews would no longer be stuck at the train tracks waiting for trains to go by when they’re responding to a call, as is sometimes the case with their current base.
The new building, paid for by the Town of Blackfalds, is set for a spring 2011 opening.
The 14-acre plot on which it will sit was purchased by the town for $1.7 million, but only five or six acres will be used for the building.
The tender was awarded to Shunda Consulting and Construction Management Ltd. for $5.3 million. Budgeting in a contingency fund and costs for the future construction of a free-standing garage, Stol said the project is currently coming in $740,000 shy of the pre-tender estimate of $7.1 million.
Besides acting as a new headquarters for Red Deer Rural RCMP and the Blackfalds fire department, the building will also be home to victim services, bylaw enforcement and traffic services.
The province will take a 25-year lease on however much of the building their resources occupy, said Stol.
One major change that comes along with the construction of the protective services building will be the establishment of Blackfalds’s own police service.
There is no available estimate of how many officers will serve Blackfalds, but Stol said a rule of thumb is one for every thousand residents. That would mean there could be five or six officers for the town.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com