By Ruby Pratka

Local Journalism Initiative

The construction of new fire stations in Dunham and Frelighsburg will go ahead as scheduled despite changes to a provincial subsidy program. The two towns had initially submitted a joint grant request under a Quebec government program for municipal infrastructure, the Programme d’amélioration et de construction d’infrastructures municipales (PRACIM). However, the joint request was denied and the municipalities were told to apply separately.

“It’s too bad – we would have liked to have one fire station in Dunham and a smaller one in Frelighsburg. The costs would have been a bit lower… but it’s a government decision,” Dunham Mayor Pierre Janecek said. “It would have been nice but it didn’t work out.” Janecek said that if the initial request had been granted, 83 per cent of the cost of the new fire station would have been paid by the province; now, he expects only 70 per cent will. Beyond that, though, the decision “doesn’t change a lot.”

Janecek said the municipality expects to apply for the grant over the summer and start construction in fall 2024 or spring 2025. The cost of the new building, which has been in the works for “seven or eight years,” is estimated at $7.5 million, of which the municipality will shoulder just over $2.7 million. The new fire station, more spacious than its predecessor, will be on the corner of Route 202 and Rue Malenfant next to the Parc de L’Envol near the municipal garage. Calls for tenders will be launched soon.

Frelighsburg mayor Lucie Dagenais said splitting Frelighsburg’s fire station project from Dunham’s “gives us a little more freedom.” Like Dunham, Frelighsburg has been planning for a new fire station for several years. “Have you seen the fire station?” Dagenais said. “It’s totally obsolete – we can only fit two small trucks in and we have to rent a space to store the fire truck. Our fire department shares a tiny office with the public works department – now they’ll have [their own] offices.”

Dagenais said she hoped that the new fire station, shared with the public works department, would help the part-time fire department recruit and train more members. “We care about our fire department and we want to give them a better work environment and a training and practice space better adapted to their needs,” she said.

The fire station, with an estimated budget of $2 million, will be built on the site of the former filtration marsh once the town’s new water treatment plant is built. Dagenais expects it to be in use by 2026 at the latest.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs, which oversees the PRACIM program, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.