Fernie city council has approved additional funding to complete the final design of the new firehall, moving the project from 70 per cent to 100 per cent design completion.
An extra $260,520 in budgeted funds will go toward the detailed design work.
City staff said the reason the design progress stopped at 70 per cent was due to the expected requirement for a referendum to secure the project funding. That pause was intended to limit costs to taxpayers in case the referendum failed.
However, staff said the funding requirements later changed and a referendum was no longer needed for the project to proceed.
The firehall location has been contentious and despite the project moving forward, this additional funding could have been shot down.
Only four councillors were present at the most recent meeting due to absences. Two had previously supported the project, while the other two had opposed it. A tie vote would have defeated the motion.
While he’s not a fan of the project as it stands, councillor Ted Shoesmith said voting against this would only delay it slightly while putting a greater cost on the taxpayer.
“I’m as people know not happy with the overall scope, scale and location of this project. I’m going to make myself no friends and make everyone very upset at me, but I am not leaning towards voting this down,” he said.
“That would not change anything, as it would simply get voted back in later. It would merely be a speed bump and a massive expense and inconvenience.”
The motion passed in a unanimous vote.
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