“It’s not really designed to be a fire hall, under the present standards,” said Mayor Robert Kirby, during a phone interview October 16. The mayor was commenting on a recommendation from the township’s fire department to council to renovate the St-Eugène fire station building so that it would be able to house three full-sized fire trucks.

Council asked the department to prepare a detailed report on its building needs and the cost to meet those needs. Mayor Kirby noted that the present state of the buildings that serve as fire stations for the township has been a longstanding concern.

“This has been an issue for the last 10 years,” he said. “We (council) are going to have to have discussions on what the future will be for the fire halls.”

The buildings that serve as the present village station in Saint-Eugène, Sainte-Anne, and Chute-à-Blondeau are all too small to meet the needs of the volunteer department for housing vehicles and storage of protective gear and other equipment. “What we would like to have is a new, central fire hall,” said Mayor Kirby.

The main problems that council needs to work out for that goal is getting the money for such a project, and finding a suitable location for the building.