Media Source: Sun Media, Leduc
The City of Leduc displayed diagrams of its new west end fire hall and addressed questions from the public at the Leduc Recreation Centre on Wednesday, March 5.
Work on the $7.7 million fire hall should begin this summer and it is expected to be operational by October 2015, according to the city.
“It splits our crews up between the west and the central part of the city so we can get folks on to scene faster and hopefully mitigate any emergency a lot quick than we have in the past because we don’t have to drive for 10 minutes,” said Capt. Spencer Michelsen with Leduc Fire Services.
The 12,000 square foot fire hall will be built just west of the West Haven neighborhood, south of Highway 39.
Fire Chief Ernie Polsom said he and City of Leduc officials have met with nearby residents to alleviate concerns about potential noise.
Everybody’s concerned about a new development in a community, particularly in a residential community. Dealing with fire and emergency services, sirens and noise are a big issue,” said Polsom. “There’s going to be an impact, make no mistake, but we’re doing everything we can to bring it down to a reasonable level.”
Polsom said the hall would be about 150 feet from the nearest residence. The building will be oriented to direct noise away from homes and the use of sirens and air horns will be limited.
“Our goal is to be the very best possible neighbors we can be,” said Polsom.
According to Linus Murphy, a partner with S2 Architecture, which designed the fire hall, a buffer of trees will separate the building from nearby residences.
“It fits right into the neighborhood,” said Murphy. “It’s a lower scale, it’s got multiple roof lines, and it’s got brick material and wood material, which would match into the siding and the materials that are at the residential area.”
Murphy said S2, which also designed the new Leduc public library, modeled the hall’s exterior after other civic architecture in Leduc.
“If you look at this building it’s got a lot of the elements of the Civic Centre,” he said, referring the hall’s concrete paneling, plinth and grid pattern.
“It’s picking up a lot of the cues that were done originally, back when, but on this building it’s a lot more modernized.”
