When you outgrow your home your options are simple - move or renovate.

And with the awarding of a contract for a building assessment and conceptual design of a new addition for the Dauphin Fire Station to Sputnik Architecture to in the amount of $55,000 plus applicable taxes, Dauphin Fire Department will soon have a better idea of its options.

“Our call volume has increased. Twenty-six years ago, we were running 50 calls a year. Now, we’re running anywhere between 250 to 350 calls a year. The types of calls have changed and our apparatus needs have grown, as well as the size of the fire trucks,” fire chief Cam Abrey said.

“So, the department has outgrown its home here and we’re looking towards the future as to what can we do?”

The Dauphin fire station was built in 1970 and received two additions in the 1980s, as well as a renovation in the 1990s when the RCMP moved out of the building.

A lack of insulation, problems with the roof and drainage, as well as some issues with the building envelope have all created challenges, Abrey said and need to be addressed.

“This whole plan has been in the works for about three or four years,” he said.

“The first step was doing a feasibility test on the entire station as it stands right now. So, it’s now bringing in engineers to take a look at the structure and tell us what needs to be done to make this building not more functional, but more user friendly, more environmentally conscious.”

Additionally, because it was originally constructed as the RCMP detachment and the fire department, the building also has separate mechanical systems which present many problems, Abrey said,

“We have separate (electrical) panels. We have separate furnaces and we’re looking at streamlining the services and what we can do to make it economically friendly.”

For the full story, read this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.