Faro’s manager of operations says he’s hoping that work will get underway on two major infrastructure projects for the town — the construction of a new firehall and public works building, and the replacement of a reservoir — by the end of the summer.
In a phone interview June 19, Gordon Wallace said that both upgrades are badly needed.
“Our current firehall and operations buildings are old and depreciated and they don’t meet code anymore, and (they’re) energy inefficient,” he said.
Meanwhile, one of the town’s three water reservoirs has a structurally-condemned roof as well as a leak near the bottom “that we’ve kind of patched with bubblegum,” he joked.
“(There’s always) a threat that it’s going to rupture and become totally inoperable, Wallace said, “so it’s basically on its very last legs.”
The Yukon government currently has tenders open for the projects, with closing dates of June 25 for the reservoir replacement and July 2 for the constructions of the firehall and operations building.
Wallace said that, with those timelines, he’s hopeful that the new reservoir will be in by the end of the year, and, if he’s being “optimistic,” that construction will begin on the new building sometime in August.
The firehall and public works building, which will be located in the yard area next to the old operations building, is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
“The current facilities that exist, we have an operating shop with a couple of bays, then the firehall is its own separate building,” Wallace explained.
“We don’t have an EMS building in the town and we don’t have a machine shop and the carpenters’ shop is just a little wood building. So it’s kind of scattered all over the yard, different little buildings all over the yard.”
With the new building, everything will be “consolidated” into one place, Wallace said. The new structure will have three fire garage bays, one EMS bay, four public works shop bays, carpentry bay and machine shop bays as well as meeting rooms that can be used for training or public meetings.
On top of having upgraded facilities, Wallace said that having everything in one spot will help with both operations and energy efficiency, and Faro is “happy to receive the upgrades for our community.
“It’s really great to see the support of the government with these projects for this,” he said.
Contact Jackie Hong at jackie.hong@yukon-news.com