New digs for fire department

Photo: Town of Osoyoos

An artist's rendition of the new project.

The new fire hall in Osoyoos is expected to have "all the things we don't have in our old hall," according to the fire chief.

Rick Jones says he was supposed to be handed the keys this week, but that may not happen just yet. Still, he expects he'll be moving operations to the new hall before the year's end, which he says will provide more facilities for the department.

"We have a training tower, now we have a proper space between the trucks, we can put all our trucks safely inside without having to back in the drive-through bay. The list is enormous."

On top of that, there will be better exhaust ventilation, so they don't "gas the poor girls out of the town hall," and there will be that training tower for firefighters.

It's been several years coming – with the department getting the gears in motion in 2008 or 2009 and the town voting to approve the building in November 2014.

That included a vote to pay for it with a new levy, which will come into effect next year, with the average single family household expected to contribute $42.68.

Jones said construction began on the project last November, and it took about a year to build the new hall which will be much larger than the old building.

He expects the public to be able to view the new hall in the new year, when the department will have fully settled in.