December 10th,
2007
A fibreglass tank has been donated by the Crofton
Pulp Mill, it's capacity is approximately 25,000
gallons (Imp).
The tank is now in storage at #1 Fire Hall to
prevent vandal damage.
The tank will ultimately be installed at the new
fire hall for emergency fire fighting water.
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December
8th, 2007
This
evening saw the Annual Christmas Party for all members of
the fire department.
Santa
Claus arrived with gifts for the little one's also at this
time the new members that will crew #2 Fire Hall and have
completed their training were also given a special package
that included their pagers, personal access code and key's
and other information.
Congratulations to all our new members.
December 7th,
2007
Fire Hall #2
flow test results, pump ran at about 10 gpm for an hour or so
then backed off to a pretty steady 3.5 gpm. It's not great but
for our purposes it's all we got!
November
27, 2007
Meeting this morning to look at cost cutting to get the fire
hall building into budget. At a meeting last Friday when Nancy
(RDN), Nick & Jan (Dashwood) took part in a conference phone
call from the RDN Offices with the designer and cost estimator
Mark van Ek. During this discussion Mark provided us with a
proposal of a steel building using the basic footprint of the
designer.
Since that time we have been looking at various items that are
not required and also only building the shell with bare
features. This has been discussed with the building inspection
department and they have provided some assistance by saying
providing we have basic security and one toilet operational they
would give there blessing for occupancy.
Well - We
are still waiting for the results of the flow testing of the
water well
On November 16, 2007
We
had a brief presentation by a supplier of an all Steel Building
"Aebig Metal Works" they have been provided with a basic layout
of our requirements and will come back to us within a couple of
weeks.
An
in depth examination was carried out on where we could cut costs
from the Venture Pacific Construction Management projection. We
found a number of places where we feel they have over inflated
costs considerably. This coming week there will be a conference
call setup between the RDN, Dashwood and Johnson Davidson. That
conference call will take place at the RDN Office in Nanaimo.
On
November 14, 2007
A
pre-construction meeting was held at the Hub Fire Engine plant
in Abbotsford relating to the new 1500 gallon tanker they will
be building.
On November 8, 2007
Meeting between the RDN, Meadowood, Dashwood, Johnson Davidson
and Venture Pacific Construction Management. The later were
asked to do a cost estimate for the construction of the Fire
Hall. There estimated cost was well above the monies available.
After considerable discussion it was agreed the we (RDN,
Dashwood, Meadowood) would examine these costs in greater depth
to see where cuts can be made.
We are still
waiting for a flow test to be carried out by Red Williams - Well
Drillers' on the well.
On October 9, 2007
Meeting between the RDN, Meadowood,
Dashwood and Johnston Davidson – Consultations was held at the Fire
Hall today relating to Fire Hall design.
Two structural layouts were examined and a decision
to adopt the tandem bay design as we will actually
get more usable space than the alternative, there
will some minor adjustments to bring the access road
closer to the Fire Hall.
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Click on picture above
to see floor plans and
elevations of new building |
On October 3 - 17th, 2007
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Red William's Well Drilling started
drilling for water at the Fire Hall site to-day. By
Friday 5th the drilling crew was down to what
they called green rock but the drill casing had become
jammed at approx: 215ft.
No more work took place until the after
the long weekend.
Tuesday 9th the crew blasted
the rock and freed up the drill casing then another 20
ft down but no sign of water they hit bed rock at 237
ft.
The question now is with no signs of
water do they pull the casing or continue?
After discussion with those involved the
decision was to continue however after another 2ft
further down the drill rig developed a major problem
resulting in requiring a new part that has to come from
Ohio so work stops until this part arrives. .
The one good “Omen” is; that signs of
water at roughly one gallon per minute was now evident.
Following the
required repairs the drillers commenced drilling to-day
Saturday 13th at around 1:30 pm.
Water was
finally found at 600 feet with an estimated flow of 5-6
gpm, since they had now been drilling in bed rock a
process of fracking will take place after which a flow
test will be carried out.
We
are awaiting the results of this test.
We will further update as information
becomes available.
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On October 2, 2007
At the Regional District of Nanaimo Board meeting this evening
passed a motion "That Hub Fire Engines be awarded the supply of a
2008 Freightliner M2 fire tanker vehicle at a cost of $149,853 plus
taxes for the Dashwood Fire Department – Firehall #2 (Meadowood)
On August 28, 2007
At the
Regular monthly Dashwood Board meeting held this evening
the purchase of a Tanker from Hub Fire Engines & Equipment was
approved valued at $150,000.00.
The recommendation now goes to RDN for approval and issue of a
purchase order.
On August 17, 2007
The RDN has advised us
to-day that they agree with the option "A" for the location of
the fire hall and have consequently advised Johnston Davison our
consultations hired for design and over seeing the construction of
the building.
On August
15, 2007
Meeting between the RDN, Meadowood,
Dashwood and Johnston Davidson – Consultations was held at the Fire
Hall.
The consultants presented several
variations for the proposed fire hall layout and location. After
much in depth discussion concept “A” with a couple of minor changes
(such as twisting the building to make it parallel to the driveway
and also a possible re-location of the septic field to the SE side
of the building but not less than 100 feet from the well site)
was the location / layout most favoured. The RDN is going to
re-examine this concept over the next few days and will advise
Johnston Davidson their decision.
Your committee is now going to get
cost estimates for both the Septic Field and also the Well Drilling
to ensure water is available in the area witched.
A copy of concept "A" is shown for your
information.
On July 26,
2007
Steering
Committee from Meadowood, Dashwood Fire Department and the RDN meet
at Dashwood Fire Hall #1 to go over the actual sitting of the
Dashwood Fire Hall #2 which will be located on Galvin Place.
Simms and
Associates have surveyed the area showing where the toe of the site
slope is located and the existing gravel roads. Onto this drawing
several ideas were brought forth for presentation to the
Consultants
- Johnston Davidson from Vancouver.
Later that
morning we meet with
Johnston Davidson and went over many items of our requirements, this
also included a site visit and a return the Dashwood Fire Hall #1 for
further discussion.
We will be
meeting again with
Johnston Davidson in about three weeks time when they will come
forward with there idea's on actual location and building layout.
On July 17,
2007
The
pre-construction meeting was held dealing with Fire Pumper at Hub Fire Trucks Plant in Abbotsford to go over all the finer points of our
requirements. At the same time your representatives were given
a tour of the plant to learn how everything was assembled, this also
provided many answers to our questions.
On June 28,
2007
Following the
Regional Board Meeting of the RDN last Tuesday 26th June the board
has awarded the contract to supply the new pumper for Meadowood to
Hub Fire Trucks of Abbotsford, BC.
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Surveying of the
one Hectare parcel of land out of the Park area is in progress. The
work being done by Sims Associates, Qualicum Beach
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On June 26,
2007
RDN informed us
to-day that the Consultants Johnston Davidson have been sent a
letter of approval and will shortly have a contract to proceed. The
building Committee will be meeting within the next week so all ideas
are ready for the joint meeting with the RDN & Johnston
Davidson so we can pass on our ideas what is required.
Water has been
located on site by Don Laviers - Water Diviner.
On June 20,
2007
Members of the
Dashwood Board and
Meadowood Steering made a visit to Hyde Creek to inspect a new
truck that they had purchased approx: three months earlier. The
general view was this was not the truck for Meadowood and we
the committee recommended to the RDN that Hub Fire Trucks of
Abbotsford, BC be the
supplier for the new pumper.
On June 6, 2007
Fire
Pumper and also a Fire Water Tanker -
Following the Truck Committee meeting
last night arrangements are in progress to
interview on site the respective company representative's over the
next week to see where we can cut costs.
On June 1, 2007
Dashwood Fire
Department received two bids to supply
a Fire Pumper and also a Fire Water Tanker, the bids came in over
budget for the tanker and this is being re-accessed.
On May 23, 2007
Dashwood Fire Department
received three bids to supply Engineering Services, these bids are
being accessed and this includes interviews with the
respective company principle. This work is on going by the
respective committee.
On May 22, 2007
The Regional District of Nanaimo Board of Directors
approved a series of Bylaws to establish and support the new
Meadowood Fire Protection Service Area in Electoral Area F. This
allows the Dashwood Fire Department, which currently services about
1,000 properties in Electoral Areas G and H, to expand its response
boundaries once a new fire hall has been built and equipped.
“I am impressed with the community effort that went
into creating this new fire protection service area,” said Area F
Director Lou Biggemann. “A group of dedicated volunteers spent five
years working with Regional District of Nanaimo staff and the
Dashwood Fire Protection Society to bring fire protection to this
developing neighbourhood.”
Now that the new Bylaws are in place, the Regional
District of Nanaimo can re-dedicate up to one hectare of land within
a community park in the Meadowood neighbourhood for the new fire
hall. Dashwood and Meadowood taxpayers along Meadowood Way (beyond
Corcan Rd.) to the top of Little Qualicum River Village in Electoral
Area F will fund the costs of building and equipping the new fire
hall.
April 26th, 2007
Your Dashwood Fire Chief and the
Truck Committee has been working very hard getting the
specifications done for both a fire engine and a tanker. These specs
have now been completed and meet with approval of our Board of
Directors on the 24th, April 2007, and were forwarded
later that evening to the RDN electronically.
The RDN is
now in the process of vetting them to ensure the correct legal
language has been used prior to advertising our requirements asking
for bids for supply of this equipment.
The
advertising commenced as of May 2nd, 2007 and will be country wide, however those companies that we
especially want bids from will also be notified directly. This
advertising will be for four weeks and all bids will be addressed to
the Chairman of the Board and will not be opened until June 1st,
2007 @ 3:00 pm. Work will then start on evaluating all the bids
against the requirements laid out, once completed a recommendation
will then be made to the RDN for the purchasing of the said
equipment.
While this
has been going on work is proceeding in getting Engineering Services
Company for design of the new fire hall the RDN is handling this as
it being advertised by them starting 25th, April 2007.
All bids have
to be in by 3:00pm May 23rd, 2007. These bids have
now been received and are being assessed by the Dashwood Board
and then forwarded onto the RDN for approval by staff and ultimately
approval by the Regional Board of Directors. This will hopefully be
completed by mid to late June when an announcement will be made
indicating the successfully bidder.
March 20th, 2007
Work
has started on drawing up the specifications for both Fire Engine and
also the Water Tanker.
A building committee is being formed with the RDN, Dashwood and
Meadowood their first meeting is scheduled for the March 27th, 2007
in Parksville.
After the Engineering services have been hired; discussion will
start on the more detailed requirements for building and other works
required.
However there
is a lot of work that has to be completed before that such as
confirming with the RDN Parks folk exactly where the Dashwood Fire Hall
#2 will
be located.
Then a land
surveyor has to be brought to survey for legal description so that
we can extract this land out of the community park.
This will
then be followed up by re-zone this portion of the land from Park to
Public Utility.
We have set a
dead line date of July 1st, 2008 to become operational
however this is not carved in stone but we must have a dead line to
aim for.
