BONNYVILLE – Renovation to the former Kopala building continues to progress. The building will converge Emergency Medical Services (EMS), 911 Services, and Station 5 of the Bonnyville Fire Department all under one roof.
“Construction is underway on the interior renovations,” says Regional Fire Chief Dan Heney, he expects the interior renovations to be completed by early April.
The Kopala building was initially purchased by the Town of Bonnyville in 2020 for $3.2 million. In 2022, Town of Bonnyville council decided to transfer the building to Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA).
“We have a earthworks and some underground piping work that was done on the outside prior to freeing up municipal water and sewer brought under the highway,” Heney says.
He explained the purpose of bringing emergency services together to one building is to maximize the effectiveness of administrative staff. “Trying to work out at two different locations sometimes can be problematic when you don’t have a lot of staffing,” says Heney.
The new location would put emergency staff in the centre of the two most populated areas in the region – the Town of Bonnyville and the MD region.
“Hopefully we have more effectiveness of our emergency responses to the entire region and not just the town. And we're also hoping that maybe we can attract residents who live around the lake to become volunteer firefighters,” Heney says.
