The community of Edgewood will soon be getting a fire hall with assistance from the Nakusp and Area Community Forest (NACFOR).
Through Paul Peterson, the representative for Area K of the Regional District of Central Kootenay, the organization will be using some of the money from its legacy fund for the project.
“I became a founding member of NACFOR with the dream of being able to use the funds,” he said. “I negotiated with the village for 25 per cent of the legacy funds to go toward Arrow Park to Edgewood, with the idea of having a fire department in Edgewood.”
Peterson has committed $165,000 to the project. This funding should cover construction costs and leave the volunteer department with some reserves.
Though Edgewood now does have a volunteer fire department, it has never had a proper fire hall.
Currently, the community’s volunteer fire department uses two fire trailers, which has all of the gear the department needs.
The department is hoping to purchase a new-to-them fire truck to help increase their capacity to respond to fires. Currently, they use two fire caddies.
These caddies are useful for putting out fires, but they do have some drawbacks.
“Right now we rely on folks who have personal trucks that are big enough to haul the trailers,” said Linda McNutt, president of the Edgewood Volunteer Fire Department Society. “So if we get a call out and nobody with a truck responds, we can’t respond to a fire because we don’t have a way to tow the trailers.”
McNutt said there has never been an incident where no truck was available.
The department is hoping to begin building the hall in either late spring or early summer of this year.