The Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) board of directors is seeking elector approval to adopt a bylaw to borrow $1.6 million over 20 years to help pay for the construction of a new fire hall on Hornby Island.
The project, which includes planning, design, communications and public consultation, is identified as an operational priority on the CVRD board’s strategic plan.
“A new fire hall would provide a safer workplace for volunteers and would be built to post-disaster standards to ensure that fire and medical emergency response equipment are available after a destructive earthquake,” said Bruce Jolliffe, director for Baynes Sound - Denman/Hornby Island (Area 'A'). “The CVRD has secured a one hectare grant of Crown land for the fire hall site located across Central Road from the current fire hall.”
The $1.9 million project would be funded by $1.6 million in debt financing, $200,000 in federal gas tax (Community Works) funding and $100,000 from reserves. Should the project gain elector approval, borrowed funds will be paid back through tax requisition. The net tax increase to the average property, assessed at approximately $455,000, would be approximately $24 per year.
The total number of electors within the Hornby Island fire protection service to which the alternative approval process applies is determined to be 834 of which 10 per cent, or 83, must submit elector response forms to prevent the Comox Valley Regional District board from adopting the fire hall construction loan authorization bylaw without first obtaining the assent of the electors by way of referendum.
The deadline for delivering the original signed elector response forms to the CVRD is 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 15, 2015. Forms must be received by the deadline in order to be counted. More information on the AAP can be found at www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/aap and project details can be found at www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/hornbyislandfirehall.