AB Greenwell School could be the future site of a live fire training centre if the Lake Cowichan Fire Department’s grant application is approved.
On Sept. 12, Lake Cowichan council’s committee of the whole recommended “that the Town make an application under the Fire Chief’s Association of BC and Officer of the Fire Commissioner program to establish a live fire training centre at the site known as AB Greenwell for the amount of $400,000.”
The motion has since been endorsed by town council and the grant application has been submitted.
Lake Cowichan fire chief Doug Knott explained to the mayor and council that there’s been a push for more regional training centres and that his department has received letters of support from the departments his hall has mutual aid agreements with as well as from the Ditidaht First Nation.
Previously firefighters had limited training availability at their Meade Creek location.
“This application is to move the current training centre from Meade Creek to a standalone station on the old ABG site,” said Lake Cowichan mayor Tim McGonigle.
More often than not, area fire departments have to go to a training facility at Otter Point in Sooke which costs both time and extra money.
Knott noted the grant is significant and will be heavily requested but “I think we have a decent chance,” he told council’s committee of the whole.
When councillor Aaron Frisby asked if there would be a cost to the town to operate it Knott explained that it wouldn’t be likely.
“Right now we’re paying to go to someone else’s,” Knott explained. “When we can get in. And that’s the biggest problem. That’s why this has come to light. We can’t get in to other training centres [that] only want to operate so many days a year and that’s weekends. That’s not how a lot of people want to spend their weekends.”
Meanwhile, now that the grant application has been submitted, Mayor McGonigle is hopeful but isn’t holding his breath.
“It’s a very complex piece of property,” he admitted, noting its long and storied history and multiple failed attempts to make use of the land following the closure of the elementary school. “It resides within Crown land, it’s zoned P1 (public institutional) and it is within the ALR.”
