Starland County is looking at an upgrade of its facilities.
“Our office is 1970s vintage, our public works shop is 1968 vintage,” said Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk, adding that in many of the fire halls such as Michichi, Craigmyle and Rumsey, the modern equipment has outgrown its quarters.
“Some of our fire guys have to put butter on their sides to squeeze into the building to get into their trucks,” he chuckles.
First on the list is the county administration office. They have just accepted a tender for the modernization and renovations. He said the biggest addition to the building would be to make it more accessible. This includes an elevator lift and other amenities to make the building more user friendly.
“Right now to enter, you have to go upstairs, and then once you are in, you have to go either upstairs or downstairs to get anywhere,” said Rawlusyk. “We are trying to build it so the main entrance will be at grade, and there will be an elevator lift to take people up or down.”
They are also planning to expand the cramped council chambers.
“Even when we meet with the villages, we run out of room now,” he said.
They also want to expand the office space so county run agencies will be able to operate from the hub. Currently, the FCSS office is located in Delia, and bylaw and community peace officers have no office space at all.
The county also wants to upgrade the facility by making it prepared to act as a hub in a crisis.
“We want to set it up so it is pre-established as a disaster centre. It will be pre-wired for a phone bank. It would give you the opportunity if you had to set up as an emergency operation centre, that you would be able to quickly do that,” said Rawlusyk.
The county has a budget of just over $1.9 million for the project made up of MSI funding and New Deal for Energy Efficiency funding. The effective low tender bid was $1,296,000 from Reed Atwood Builders, based out of Calgary. There were six contractors to offer a bid.
Rawlusyk said because the bid came out below budget, it may allow the county to look at solar power options for the building, and maybe more solar power to county water pumping stations.
