![IMG_20130307_193728[1]](http://blog.forterie.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/IMG_20130307_1937281.jpg)
It is official, the new Central Avenue Fire station is “Open For Business”. !!
In a bittersweet moment, firefighters from the former Districts One and Two attended their respective stations one last time, cleaned up the trucks, and responsed on their first run, ” to the new station” . One veteran firefighter was overheard saying, it was tougher than I thought to leave the old building, but man it nice to have a new modern facility.
As soon as the spring weather clears, the exterior landscaping and a final top coat of asphalt will be applied. Everything should be ready for the May 24 long weekend, and the annual opening of the Railway Museum.
On a side note, the parking lot adjacent to the railway museum and Lions Sugar Bowl park are there for public use. Please feel free to park there while using the local amenities. Also, there are public accessible washrooms on the side of the building that will be open seasonally.
Plans are under way for an official grand opening and public open house in June, once all of the exterior finishing touches are complete.
Its unfortunate that the town feels the need to waste money on things that aren’t required. The funding for this waste of space may have been provided by the feds but it will be more costly to run and accomplish the exact opposite of what the town needs to do to attract people and business to the area – The town should be lowering its costs and operational budget…not increasing it. Fort Erie needs to be competitive in the region of Niagara and it is losing the race with stupid decisions like this.
At least this fire hall provided some nice photo ops for a couple idiot politicians that only care about themselves
Just to clarify, there were no Federal or Provincial grants used in the building of this station.