It was a special day for the Lakes and District Fire Department when it officially opened its expanded and renovated fire hall in Lake George.
The department now has the space to keep its fire trucks inside on a more permanent basis – unlike before, when the vehicles were taken out whenever a function was held in the fire hall – and the plan is to hold more activities in the community section of the hall.
“We’ll be able to handle anything from weddings to funeral receptions to birthday parties and showers,” said Scott Killam, the Lakes and District fire chief. “Hopefully we’re going to have card nights and that type of thing, suppers and breakfasts.”
Corinne Killam, president of the Lakes and District auxiliary, acknowledged it was a struggle at times putting everything together for this project.
“It’s been a long process,” she said after the Sept. 6 ceremony. “Scott spent a good many hours in here. A lot of hard work.”
So the grand opening was a particularly satisfying occasion for the Killams and for everyone involved in the fire department and the auxiliary.
Among other things, the project also included the installation of wheelchair accessible washroom and shower facilities.
The federal and provincial governments each contributed $78,000 to the project and the Municipality of Yarmouth gave $10,000. Assistance from the federal New Horizons program enabled the fire department to redo its kitchen, Scott Killam said, “which was a bonus because we weren’t planning on doing that right away.”
Those on hand for the grand opening included local political representatives, all of whom tipped their cap to those involved in the project, saying they know the fire hall will be put to good use.
One of those uses is as a comfort centre during emergencies. Coincidentally, as West Nova MP Colin Fraser pointed out, the grand opening was held just as the region was bracing for hurricane Dorian.
Fraser offered congratulations to everyone involved in the fire hall project “for doing an amazing job, being determined to get this thing done ... I know this building will be here to serve the community for many years.”
Zach Churchill, the Yarmouth MLA and Nova Scotia’s education minister, said the fire hall “is going to produce a lot of great opportunities for this community and it’s all because of the hard work of you folks, your determination, and us (the three levels of government) all working together.”
Yarmouth Warden Leland Anthony echoed the words of Fraser and Churchill, telling fire department and auxiliary members, “You can be very proud of this facility.”
The last of the speakers before the ceremonial ribbon was cut was Corinne Killam, who said although it had taken a while to get to this point, it was worth it.
“No words can express how I proud I feel,” she said.
