It was a celebration a long time in the making on Saturday as the community gathered to officially open the new fire hall, police station and public works facility in Plum Coulee.
In January 2023, work finally began to convert an old cardboard box plant into the new space. A project the Municipality of Rhineland invested $800,000 into.
"It's surreal," said Tony Fehr, Chief of the Plum Coulee Volunteer Fire Department.
When asked what his favourite aspect of the new hall was, Fehr's answer was simple. "The room. The space. We have the space to function inside. We didn't before."
He explained further.
"So, first thing, we can get into our trucks while they're parked inside. It wasn't an option before. One guy got in, drove the truck out and then we all got in," he said with a chuckle. "We have lots of space for training. All winter we could train inside. We've pulled vehicles in here, we've done v-ex (vehicle extrication) in here. We've built a training place for confined space. We can do second storey rescue. We've stretched out hose in here, we have we can charge lines inside. We hardly had to leave all winter."
The fire hall side of the building also includes a large meeting space for the team to gather and debrief after a call.
Fehr added, the new hall will also allow the department to grow.
"We could probably, limiting training space, put another four trucks in here. I don't see us ever getting to that point, but in the future, if we can get a tanker truck or a small rescue truck, stuff like that. There's room in here and we're not sacrificing that we have to train outside."
Occupying the other majority of the new facility is the public works branch for the LUD.
During a speech to the crowd at Saturday's grand opening, Foreman, Randy Braun, said this was big step up for his team.
Public Works Foreman for Plum Coulee, Randy Braun."When I started twenty-two years ago or so, we were in the old shop downtown [...] and back then, we needed two guys to change oil - one to hold the flashlight and one to change the oil. We had a safety issue as well with backing over the sidewalk downtown," he added. "That was two-man job. One guy had to look out for kids and the other had to back the vehicle out or drive it in.
[...]it was like The Beverly Hillbillies hit the oil money when we moved into this shop. It was quite an improvement."
And on the west end of the building, you'll find the Altona Police Service office. The department has been working in Plum Coulee since 2008.
Police Chief, Dan Defer."We are honoured to be working in Plum Coulee as well, and to have this facility open is just great," said Police Chief, Dan Defer. "To have our offices connected with the Public Works and fire department, in the event of any major incident in Plum Coulee, our three departments are going to be working together, and to have us under the same roof will make that easier."
All three thanked the Municipality of Rhineland for making the investment.
Plum Coulee Councillor, Archie Heinrichs, and Reeve Don Wiebe"This has been a long, long time coming," agreed Reeve Don Wiebe. "We tried a whole bunch of things before this. We looked at building new fires halls, that was expensive. Then we came across this and it served two purposes [...] but even there, there were twists and turns.
We do appreciate the community's support. When we first launched this project, there was about a $195,000 debenture. We floated that around the community and there was not one voice of opposition."
Fri, May 3, 7:00 PM
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