September 16, 2017
Anyone who has ever seen a Douglas fir or Sitka spruce will immediately understand why fire fighters and fire halls are of great interest to anyone who lives on B.C.’s Gulf Islands.
One of those trees catches on fire on any of the Gulf Island and that island has to be evacuated quickly; extremely quickly before the entire island goes up in flames.
Here is a story about possible fire hall construction on North Pender Island:
The North Pender Fire Protection Society has hired one contractor, partially declined a volunteer offer and started the search for a construction manager.
According to society chairman Dave Wightman, the call has gone out for a construction manager in the event that residents vote in favour of a new fire hall building in the September referendum.
“This person would be our agent to look out for our interests because we don’t have the expertise on the board,” Wightman said.
Six individuals have been asked to bid on the job. Three are based on Pender; the others are from the Mainland.
Wightman speculated that it is likely that local contractors will opt to wait for contract work on the fire hall as whomever is hired as manager will not be eligible to bid on that work.
The manager would be there to “protect the budget” for the society.
Wightman said Ian Heslop’s offer to head up a volunteer crew to construct the new fire hall, after being seriously considered, has been partially declined. The society has to use a registered coordinating professional because it is using tax revenues and must build to earthquake preparedness standards.
It is hoped the volunteer crew can be used in some aspect of the project.
In the meantime, Stonebridge Construction Ltd., on South Pender has been awarded a contract to do $4,600 worth of repairs on the existing North Pender fire hall.
In compliance with a Workers Compensation Board inspection order, a door frame to one of the equipment bays must be repaired. A supporting post will be installed in the hall’s main room under one of the beams and a staircase outside the hall will be torn down and removed.
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To read more of the posts in this blog of eclectic stories and subjects, go to writingsmall.wordpress.com and tealeaf56.wordpress.com
Tanya’s books are: Confessions of a Tea Leaf Reader, Friends I Never Knew (both are available for purchase from the author or from amazon.com), Dreams and Tricksters as well as Women Rights/Writes. There are copies of these books in several libraries.
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