Rankin Inlet (Sep 08/04) - Construction of a new training facility for the Rankin Inlet Volunteer Fire Department is slated to begin this week.

Rick Penner is relieved and happy that plans to build the 30 X 26 foot classroom are underway.

Penner hopes the training room, which will be built onto the west side of the fire hall, will benefit the entire Kivalliq region.

"Rankin is a gathering point as it is. Instead of flying people into smaller communities and expecting resources to be there, develop a regional site (for training). That's the target," said Penner.

Up until now, the fire department has trained wherever they could find the space. Sometimes they sit in a small space behind the fire trucks for their weekly sessions.

"If we didn't have any place to train, we'd have no place to learn. Then we wouldn't be able to better ourselves," said Penner.

The hamlet council put out a request for proposals for the project in early August. Qagvik Enterprises was the only bidder for the contract. The $178,000 bid was accepted in a regular council meeting Aug. 23.

Almost underway

John Hodgson, Rankin Inlet senior administrative officer, is happy that the long-awaited construction of the training room is almost underway.

The fire hall expansion has been on the books for a number of years, but securing funding from the Department of Community and Government Services proved difficult.

The department is providing $159,000 of the funding for the project. Hamlet council will provide the rest through municipal reserves or through fundraising. Hodgson isn't sure which one it will be.

"The worst case scenario is that we'll have to take it out of the reserves," he said.

"We're hoping that there are some municipal materials that can be used to off-set the costs for the contractor," said Hodgson.

The hamlet hopes to complete the project by the end of February.