Richard Froese
South Peace News
The old fire hall in Kinuso has been sold by Big Lakes County at a bargain price.
At its regular meeting July 14, council approved a recommendation to sell the old fire hall for $1 to the Kinuso and District Volunteer Emergency Response Society.
CAO Jordan Panasiuk stressed a clause has also been added to the agreement that disqualifies the society from capital grant funding from the County to upgrade the building and property.
Since the former fire hall is still used by the Kinuso fire district of Big Lakes County Fire Services, the County offered the building to the society, says Pat Olansky, director of planning and development.
The agreement also includes an option to reacquire the land, she says.
“The option to reacquire the property is recommended [in the agreement] to be consistent with the sale agreement in place with the Enilda and District Society for Recreation and Culture for the former Enilda fire hall,” Olansky says.
She says the transaction benefits the County and the Kinuso community.
“The society can continue to utilize the building for its own purposes,” Olansky says.
“It also reduces the number of properties from the County’s municipal land inventory.”
Kinuso deputy fire Everett Samuelson spoke to council June 23 after council invited the society to present its case to acquire the property.
“We thought it a shame to lose the building,” says Samuelson,
“We don’t feel it’s beneficial to the community to lose it.”
He says the old hall is used to store society equipment for fire and rescue.
Samuelson says it costs the society about $3,500 a year for utilities and maintenance.
He adds the building was constructed around 1988 and was used as the main base until the current new fire hall was built around 2012.
The fire command vehicle and van are stored in the old building.
“We also talked about using it as a base for a big incident,” Samuelson says.
“We train in there three or four times a year.”
The Municipal Government Act states if a municipality proposes to transfer or grant an estate or interest in land for less than the market value, it does not have to be advertised if it is to be used by a non-profit organization.
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