Demolition recently began on the Tantalus Fire Hall on the north side of Squamish.
According to the District of Squamish, the demolition is set to last about five weeks. Construction of a new fire hall in the same location will begin after the demolition.
“Construction is expected to begin in early 2023,” wrote District spokesperson Rachel Boguski in an email to The Squamish Chief.
The project's cost is expected to be about $15.8 million, wrote Boguski, which the District secured through borrowing and reserves. However, the District is still applying for a grant.
“A grant application is underway for funding under the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund (GMF) project loan and grant initiative that funds capital projects targeting net zero energy performance in a new municipal facility,” she wrote.
If approved, the grant will help cover or offset some of the total cost, Boguski wrote.
The District has also set specified landfill diversion goals for this project as it did for the Fire Hall No. 1 project. They hope to divert approximately 85% of the waste away from the landfill.
“For the Fire Hall No. 1 project, we were able to exceed this target and achieved over 90% landfill diversion. We anticipate for Fire Hall No. 2 that we will reach our target and we are pushing to exceed as we did with Fire Hall No. 1,” wrote Boguski.
Despite most of the building not being salvageable, the District plans to recycle the steel and crush the masonry block to repurpose it for making concrete.
In addition to landfill diversion, the new building will reduce water consumption by half compared to a typical building, revamp stormwater collection to ease the burden on existing infrastructure and use plant-based materials and carbon retention methods when possible. The District will also install solar panels.
