[LikeHamilton]

City awards $2.7-million fire hall contract

Low bidder from Mississauga accepted

By Mike Pearson

Ancaster News
Mar 14, 2008

A Mississauga firm will be responsible for the construction of Ancaster's new emergency services Station 20.
M.J. Dixon Construction Limited was awarded the contract late last month.

The company's bid of $2,723,000 was the lowest of seven submissions.

The figure was $124,621 lower than Ancaster firm Bestco Construction. The highest bid of 3,895,000 was submitted by Hamilton firm Triple Crown Enterprises.

Hamilton assistant deputy fire chief Jim Doyle said the contract is a win-win situation for the city. M.J. Dixon not only submitted the lowest bid, but also has experience using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design principles.

"It's great that they've got some experience," Mr. Doyle said.

The new emergency services building will be built using LEED guidelines for energy efficiency and locally-produced materials.

Mr. Doyle said the city will strive for LEED silver designation. LEED is a registered trademark of the U.S. Green Building Council. There are multiple LEED designations ranging from platinum to bronze.

According to information on its Web site, M.J. Dixon has built several emergency services stations in the Greater Toronto Area. Its Ajax fire station project was billed as the first major architectural project promoting environmental initiatives in Ajax. The station was also built according to LEED Gold specifications.

Another fire hall for the city of Toronto at Old Leslie Street included state-of-the- art communication cabling systems, closed circuit television and security systems, vehicle exhaust systems, apparatus bays, dormitory training facilities and fire prevention offices, as well as kitchen and fitness facilities.

Paul Chang, co-ordinator of LEED construction for M.J. Dixon, was on vacation this week. A preliminary site meeting with the contractor and city staff is scheduled for next week.

Station 20, located at the northwest corner of Garner Road and Kitty Murray Lane, is scheduled for occupancy by December. The site is currently home to the Ancaster Fairgrounds, which are slated to relocate by 2009. Construction of the emergency services station will begin this spring and is expected to continue until this fall.

Station 20 will operate 24-hours, seven days per week, with one fire truck and one emergency medical services vehicle. The station will be staffed by 20 full-time firefighters.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6345/station20sign01kb6.jpg

A sign of urban growth!

[SteelTown]

I'm glad this will be done with. The fire station near my place (Mohawk and Garth) is often sent to Ancaster and Meadowlands even though our property taxes are going towards it and not Ancaster.

Once this station is up our property tax for the fire station will stay inside our area.

[raisethehammer]

where is this?? the picture looks like it's the middle of nowhere. I assume there must be gobs of sprawl nearby, otherwise it makes no sense to put a firehall in no-man's land.

[SteelTown]

^

Station 20, located at the northwest corner of Garner Road and Kitty Murray Lane, is scheduled for occupancy by December. The site is currently home to the Ancaster Fairgrounds, which are slated to relocate by 2009. Construction of the emergency services station will begin this spring and is expected to continue until this fall.

[raisethehammer]

sorry....I'm completely unfamiliar with the area...where is that in relation to Duffs Corners or Meadowlands etc....

[LikeHamilton]

sorry....I'm completely unfamiliar with the area...where is that in relation to Duffs Corners or Meadowlands etc....

It is about 1 ½ to 2 km east of the new Hwy 6 at the top of the Meadowlands development. Or about halfway between Duff’s corner and Glancaster Road.

[HAMRetrofit]

We wouldn't want the barns and tract houses to burn down now would we. Another misplacement of a public facility.

[Millstone]

sorry....I'm completely unfamiliar with the area...where is that in relation to Duffs Corners or Meadowlands etc....

It's on the corner of Google and Maps.

[raisethehammer]

ahh, found it. Just typed in 'empty field amongst the sprawl in Ancaster' and Google brought back a pile of great info.

[LikeHamilton]

It is the corner of the fairground's parking lot.

[HAMRetrofit]

I don't see what is in risk of burn down out there? Is a $200,000 dollar tract house really worth $2.7 million dollars in construction costs for this fire station.

[JT Jacobs]

I don't see what is in risk of burn down out there? Is a $200,000 dollar tract house really worth $2.7 million dollars in construction costs for this fire station.

Ancaster is largely boring and sprawlsville, to be sure, but it has a rapidly growing population. It seems underserved by not having a firehall of its own.

This looks like a decent project: it's LEED certified and the city took the lowest bid from out-of-town developers who have done this kind of work before and to exacting standards. So, what's the problem with Ancaster having a firehall? What am I missing here? This will serve the entire town, which has been around for ages. This project doesn't contribute to sprawl, as I understand it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm for downtown development and investment, but the suburbs are in place now. There's no way around that. The city still has to attend to them. This looks like a fair project. That it's going on the former fair grounds also makes sense.

From the picture, it looks very rural, but it isn't. It's only about a two-minute drive to the Meadowlands Monstrosity from the former fair grounds.

[JT Jacobs]

I don't see what is in risk of burn down out there? Is a $200,000 dollar tract house really worth $2.7 million dollars in construction costs for this fire station.

One final comment: the above logic is absurd. At what dollar value for a home would you say justifies a new firehall? So we only put in firehalls for heritage homes of x-amount and only in intensely dense neighbourhoods?

[flar]

Little children live in those tract houses

[HAMRetrofit]

Little children live in poverty on the other side of town. No one seems to be injecting $2.7 million dollars into a project that could potentially save their lives one day.

This fire station will fuel property values and contribute to more sprawl. There is already a station on Wilson St. for Ancaster.

[raisethehammer]

what??? there is a firehall on Wilson St?? this is news to me. I've always heard the logic for this new firehall being that Ancaster doesn't have a firehall yet.
If this is true, then this is ridiculous. If this site pictured above really is 2 minutes from Meadowlands, then it's a complete waste of money. Wilson St is also 2 minutes from Meadowlands.

[HAMRetrofit]

Take a look at the map.

http://map.hamilton.ca/Static/PDFs/Special_Interest/Hamilton%20Fire%20Stations.pdf

[thistleclub]

Wilson East and Rousseaux may be two minutes from Meadowlands, but the existing Ancaster station is out by the high school, about seven minutes from the fairgrounds. (The long-mothballed station at Wilson and Sulphur Springs is about seven minutes from the fairgrounds and five minutes from the Meadowlands.)

[LikeHamilton]

So I talked to friend on the Fire Department about this station. To start with this station was already on the books for the Ancaster Fire Department when amalgamation came along. Hamilton was already planning a new station at the top of Upper Paradise at Rymal area to service the high number of senior residences going in that area and to service the backside of the airport when amalgamation came along. The Ancaster station was originally planed close to the power centre on Golflinks. This new station on Garner is a cost savings as there would have been two stations built, two fire trucks bought and 40 firefighters hired instead of just 20 for one station. This is one of the few actually documented and factual cost savings of amalgamation.

Up to now the area is serviced by Station 21 on Wilson Street @ the 403 and Station 3 at Garth and Mohawk. Because of the evil area rating, Ancaster people pay less for fire fighting services, they being 3rd out of 6 areas. But they get full service with some full time vehicles and some part-time vehicles whenever the part-timers get to the station. The problem with that area and the Meadowlands is that the vehicle from Station 3 almost always beats the vehicle from Station 21 to the calls. But then the area served by Station 3 now is served by a vehicle further away yet the people of Ward 8 are paying more for their service than the people in Ancaster. This was driving Ward 8 Councillor Terry Whitehead crazy. Now this new station will go into Ancaster but also go down Garner/Rymal in to old Hamilton and service this area and up into the Mount Hope area and the back end of the airport. This station will also house a new ambulance for that area. The mothballed station in old Ancaster is now a live theatre.

My friend also said that they pick locations by working out response times. A built up area should get the first fire truck within 4 minutes, 80% of the time. When an area gets busy, then they look at adding more trucks to a station. That is why the lower city has most of the stations with 2 trucks. Station 1 on John Street has 3 as they do over 4000 calls a year in the core! In the outlying areas, you can have stations with up to 5 vehicles. At the most, only one will be staffed 24/7 and the rest will be staffed with on call part-timers.

I was also told that there are plans to build a new station in Waterdown. It is to be in the area of Evens Road and HWY 5/Dundas Street. It will be staffed by on call part-timers and will be called Station 31 and may open as early as late 2009.

If you want to see what the Hamilton Fire Department has in the way of Stations and Fire Trucks, try this link.

http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityDepartments/EmergencyServices/Fire/Fire+Station+Locations.htm

Stations 1 to 12, 20 & 23 are full time staffed (24/7).
Stations 17, 21 & 24 have one vehicle staffed 24/7 and the rest are on call part-timers.
Stations 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 & 25 to 28 and future 31 are on call part-timers.
Station 13 is a Maintenance facility and is staffed from 8:30 am to 11 pm.
Station 22 is a training facility and is usually staffed from 8 am to 11 pm.
Station 29 is the fire prevention HQ and is staffed from 7 am to 6 pm.
Station 30 is a 24/7 EMS facility and houses about a dozen ambulances, first response units and large incident support units. It also houses the central storeroom for all of the Hamilton Emergency Services Fire & EMS stations and personnel.
Stations 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 & 30 house ambulances also.

I hope this helps people with the need and placing of Fire/EMS stations.

[raisethehammer]

thanks LikeHamilton...that is very helpful. Great info.

[markbarbera]

One look at that map clearly shows that this station's location is appropriate. An entire swath of the city bounded by the Linc, the 403, Upper James and Twenty Road is underserved by the current station locations. This isn't about just the Ancaster neighbourhood, as Steeltown has pointed out, the west mountain will benefit greatly by the new station.

[LikeHamilton]

Construction set to begin on new Meadowlands fire hall

Project to be 'substantially complete' Dec. 1

Mike Pearson Mar 28, 2008 Ancaster News

Construction is set to begin next week on Ancaster's new Emergency Services Station 20.

"We're looking at starting in early April," said Paul Chiang, vice president of M.J. Dixon Construction. "It's slated to be substantially completed by December 1."

The Mississauga-based general contractor was awarded the $2.7 million project by the city of Hamilton late last month.

The project, located at the corner of Garner Road and Kitty Murray Lane, will strive for silver designation under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

LEED construction is regulated by the Canada Green Building Council.

"It's a new standard that's out there," Mr. Chiang said.

Mr. Chiang explained the new emergency services station could include recycled products, energy efficient heating and cooling systems, and an efficient building management system designed to limit pollution and energy consumption.

"It's a nice design. We're really quite excited about it," Mr. Chiang said.

Green materials, such as carpeting made from recycled fibres, and paints with a low VOC rating (volatile organic compounds) will be given priority.

Mr. Chiang said M.J. Dixon's experience in fire hall construction will be an asset for the new Station 20.

"This is a bit smaller scale, but we've done a number of fire and police stations all over the Greater Toronto Area. The one we did in Ajax was significantly larger."

He alluded to the LEED gold Ajax fire station project, billed as the community's first major architectural project promoting environmental initiatives.

Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson said a new traffic light will be installed at the corner of Garner Road and Kitty Murray Lane to expedite the departure of emergency vehicles.

The new fire hall will also include a stone faÁade, giving it a heritage-style look.

"It's going to be a neat design," Mr. Ferguson said. "I think we'll be proud of it."

When plans for the fire hall were announced last year, members of the Ancaster Community Committee and planning sub-committee stressed the need for a unique design that would pay homage to the former Ancaster fairgrounds. The Ancaster Fair is slated to move from its adjacent property on Garner Road to Trinity Road by 2009.

Station 20 will operate 24-hours, seven days per week, with one fire truck and one emergency medical services vehicle.

It will be staffed by 20 full-time firefighters.

AncasterNews.com


Ferguson’s comments are interesting. Only last week he was bashing the station trying to blame Hamilton for the increase in taxes in Ancaster due to the fire station. He said that Ancaster did not need the expansion of the town or the fire station. I believe almost 95% of the Meadowlands where approved by the Town of Ancaster well before amalgamation. The fire station was already in Ancaster’s capital budget before amalgamation.

[LikeHamilton]

New Fire Station 20

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5139/img4519aiu8.jpg

[Millstone]

New Fire Station 20

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5139/img4519aiu8.jpg

oh no they didn't

[raisethehammer]

Ferguson is the council idiot. I think we all know that now.
Don't expect any natural flowers or tall grass on this property. lol.

[realcity]

^ that's hilarious
"It's going to be a neat design," Mr. Ferguson said. "I think we'll be proud of it."

It looks like an illustration straight out of a children's book from the 50s.

I can't believe how moronic Ferguson is.

[raisethehammer]

maybe instead of coming down to city hall and annoying everyone all the time, he can just sit out front of the fire station in his car and admire his proud new building.

[realcity]

^ lol

what does he think is so "neato"? -- all the cut, manicured, neat grass.

[realcity]

that photo is also incorrect, it shows a sidewalk, remember that is going in Ancaster.

[raisethehammer]

it also shows people walking by and kids playing out front. I don't see the X-box.

[beanmedic]

It's hard to make out in the drawing, but I assume the red is stucco?

[raisethehammer]

I assume so. Isn't stucco mandatory in Ancaster?

[hammergirl]

I thought children's book too. All it needs is a dalmation.

Why are the firemen wearing their yellow fire coats outside?

Firemen should always be shirtless LOL Unless fighting a fire that is.

[realcity]

^ funny... i didn't notice they're wearing their yellow coats.

it's so hiliarious... why is the red firetruck out back in the field? the two boys fighting/playing...the car blocking the trucks escape? a dalmation and a cat stuck in the tree, someone flying a kite and a picnic, someone holding balloons and it's a perfect picture of Ancaster.

[raisethehammer]

where's the neighbour yelling at the other because of their single dandelion, the drivers honking and flipping each other off and the streets with no sidewalks???

[LikeHamilton]

This is great....what are you guy's smoking?

[SteelTown]

First off thanks for the rendering LikeHamilton!

Personally I like the fire hall design, but only if it's red bricks and not red stucco. It's a better design then the typical fire halls.

[LikeHamilton]

I had a look at the original picture I took. I had to scale it down 75%. The yellow part of the building look like stone and the red part looks like red brick. Only time will tell!

[realcity]

someone post a picture of the old firehall on John North near Rebecca.

[LikeHamilton]

Go to the Fire Departments web site. You can see all 30 of their stations and vehicles.

http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityDepartments/EmergencyServices/Fire/Fire+Station+Locations.htm

[realcity]

http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/BDEA4FBE-DF92-472B-8A2B-E48AEBD9565D/0/Station1.jpg

[raisethehammer]

awesome building! I love it.

Not enough stucco and pesticide front grass for Ferguson though.

[the dude]

that has got to be the most unique building in hamilton. anyone know what architectural style it is? it reminds me of something you might see in holland or germany. one of my favourites.

[BrianE]

http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/BDEA4FBE-DF92-472B-8A2B-E48AEBD9565D/0/Station1.jpg

Where's the crack whores? Why aren't there any meth addicts walking around. There should be at least one fat guy on a scooter. When are they tearing this dump down anyways? It's an eysore!

[Millstone]

awesome building! I love it.

Not enough stucco and pesticide front grass for Ferguson though.

Yeah that building is gorgeous.

[SteelTown]

The frame is all up, pretty damn quick!

[raisethehammer]

of course....new buildings are constructed to last the test of time these days.

[LikeHamilton]

Taken 28 July 2008

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/5792/img4789vb4.jpg

The front is going to be brick.

[adam]

It amazes me how the brutalist architectural style is still alive and strong in 2008.

"Arguably a direct result of the economically depressed post-war American era, the brutalist movement incorporated the simplicity and bare bones attitude of the Depression evoked by the painful social and political repercussions of the 1960s overseas Vietnam War and domestic civil rights movement. This attitude is undeniably reflected in the movement's core, identifying design element of exposed skeletal and foundational structures and unprimed, or raw and uncovered." - helium.com

Uggh!

[flar]

This is modern but not in the brutalist style. I've seen this structure and I think it will look alright.

[LikeHamilton]

Taken February 13. Expected to open sometime in March, 3 month late.

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9876/img6726pb9.jpg

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/3470/img6728yo0.jpg

[SteelTown]

The fire hall is looking really nice. I like it. Would be nice to have this fire hall a standard for each new station in Hamilton.

[realcity]

looks like a fertilizer factory

[adam]

^^ agreed! compare it to the fire hall downtown and it looks brutalist.

[highwater]

Give it time. Everything looks crappy at that stage.

[LikeHamilton]

Hamilton Emergency Services Fire & EMS

Official Opening of Fire / EMS Station 20
Saturday, July 4, 2009
10:00 am – Noon
(Official Ceremony at 11:00 am)
Fire / EMS Station 20
661 Garner Road East, Ancaster