1 GENERAL COMMITTEE

WELLAND FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

/5-15

APPROVALS

GENERAL MANAGER

TREASURER

CITY MANAGER

REPORT: F&ES 2015-02

March 10, 2015

SUBJECT: FACILITY NEEDS STUDY FOR FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES, REPORT ON PARTS 1, 2, AND 3

AUTHOR AND: DENYS PREVOST

APPROVING G.M.: CHIEF, FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES DEPARTMENT

RECOMMENDATIONS:

THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WELLAND receives for information Report F&ES 2015-02 Facility Needs Study for Fire & Emergency Services, Report on Parts 1, 2, and 3. ·

ORIGIN AND BACKGROUND:

Consultants

On June 12, 2012 Council awarded the contract for the subject Study to KNY Architects Inc, of Burlington, Ontario. Part 1 of the Study was undertaken by KNY's subcontractors MMM Group and NivoNuvo Consulting. Parts 2 and 3 were solely done by KNY.

Part 1 of the Study was completed in June 2013 and was presented to Council June 3, 2014, in conjunction with staff report F&ES 2014-02 Facility Needs Study for Fire & Emergency Services, Report on Part 1, Optimal Response Deployment. At that time Council was presented with individual copies of the Consultant's Part 1 report.

In August 2014 the City completed the purchase of 4.1 acres of property at the intersection of King and Lincoln Streets, intended for the construction of a fire station. In October 2014 the City completed the environmental risk assessment process on the property, verifying there are no environmental concerns on this brownfield site that would deter the construction of a fire station on the lands.

Parts 2 and 3 of the Study were completed in draft September 2014. The Consultant will be making a presentation to Council concurrent with this report.

The Consultant's reports are available on the City website, on the Fire & Emergency Services page.

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Scope

The scope of the Study was divided into three parts as described below.

Part 1; Identified a strategy to optimize deployment of current emergency response resources · (trucks and firefighters) through fire station locations, number of stations, and staff/vehicle allocations. Twelve years of data was analyzed to develop the conclusions. The future impact on service delivery was determined from projections of population and development growth over the next 20 years.

Part 2; Identified facility needs for the various divisions of the Department, i.e., Operations (emergency response), Fire Prevention, Training and Administration. Fire station functions, design flexibility, space needs, architectural drivers, design flexibility, building functional relationships and flows, building systems, training facilities, life cycle costing, service life expectations, heritage concepts, and site selection.

Part 3; Presents concept plans (floor plans and elevation views), outline specifications (the standards to which the fire stations should be constructed), and estimates of costs for the construction of the two fire stations. The information contained in the Part 3 report . is intended to be sufficient for us to proceed with developing an RFP for architectural services as preliminary to any construction.

The Consultant's Facility Needs Study, Parts 1, 2 and 3 contains the data, methodology, conclusions, recommendations, and critical information necessary to assist Council in developing a strategic plan for providing new fire stations. The recommendations in these reports are intended to provide optimally located stations, of appropriate size and design, to support the delivery of superior Emergency Services for the 21 51 century.

COMMENTS AND ANALYSIS:

Provincial Focus

With the introduction of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act in 1997, the Province adopted what is termed the "Three Lines-of-Defense." The three lines are Public Fire Safety Education; Fire Safety Standards and Enforcement; and (if the first two are not effective) then Emergency Response to incidents that still occur. All three of these "Lines-of-Defense" are embedded in the services that the Fire and Emergency Services delivers to the citizens of Welland and are mandated by legislation.

Services Review - Rationale

The need to refine the delivery of emergency response services in Welland was recognized in the Fire and Emergency Services Master Plan adopted by Council in 2004. In that Master Plan a number of recommendations regarding closing of some and establishing of other (i.e. new) fire stations and a training facility were made but never acted on.

Fire services in Welland (as is typical in all municipalities) is a core service, long established. It is subject to high public expectations and requires significant commitment of operating and capital dollars, on an ongoing basis, in order to maintain an effective and efficient service. As the City grows and as its character changes, it is prudent to _

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periodically evaluate and, if necessary, realign the delivery of fire/emergency services to ensure that the annual investment is producing the best possible result in protecting the public and (importantly) meeting expectations.

Service Delivery

The role of Welland Fire & Emergency Services (WFES) is varied and broadly described as preserving the safety of persons and the protection of property and the environment.

WFES delivers Emergency Response Services consisting of the following;

• Response to fires . This includes; fire suppression, removal of hazardous conditions/materials, rescue of persons, safety of the public from the effects of fire, immediate shelter and assistance to persons affected by fire, protection of the environment, protection of the neighbourhood from the spread of fire, securing the scene in aftermath of the fire for protection of the public, and investigation of the origin and cause of the fire.

• Response to pre-fire conditions. This includes; overheated equipment, electrical arcing, smoke showing or smelt, alarms sounding , open flame near combustibles, food left on the stove, and other unsafe conditions. Thus preventing a fire .

• Response to false alarms. This includes; malicious false reports of fires, malfunctions in automatic fire detection and alarm systems, human perceived emergency, human error accidentally triggering an alarm condition, children playing, telephone problems, or other causes of a false report of fire.

• Response to public hazards. This includes; fireworks complaints, open-air fire complaints, release of flammable gasses or liquids, release of toxic gasses or liquids or solids, arcing electrical wires, trees down on buildings, vehicles, or power lines, carbon monoxide in buildings, smoke or unusual odours in buildings.

• Response to motor vehicle collisions. This includes; extrication/rescue of persons trapped or involved, suppression of fires, assistance to paramedics with patient care, initial protection of the environment from spills, removal of ignition sources, assistance to police with scene safety and investigation, removal of casualties.

• Response to trapped or injured persons. This includes; persons involved in industrial incidents, extrication of persons, rescue from high places using rope techniques, rescue of persons from ice covered or open bodies of water, rescue of persons from elevators or other entrapment situations.

• Response to other calls for assistance. Which includes; calls from utility companies, police, paramedics or others, usually in support of their primary mission, and to provide forcible entry capability, laddering, welfare checks, atmosphere monitoring, searching for persons lost or wandering , lifting assistance for large or inaccessible persons, lighting, and other assistance to police or paramedics in removing or accessing persons in need.

• Medical assistance calls. This service is broadly the response to persons in need of immediate assistance due to severe and immediately life-threatening illness or _

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1nJury. This service is provided under a Tiered-Response Agreement for the provision of emergency pre-hospital medical care, - a.k.a. emergency medical assistance, and is delivered to patients as an adjunct to Niagara's ambulance/paramedic services (i.e. Niagara EMS).

All of the above response services, with few exceptions, are delivered on an emergency basis (i.e. red lights and sirens) , initiated by citizens calling 9-1-1 . Over the last 5 years, on average, WFES responded to approximately 2,400 incidents annually.

WFES also delivers non-emergency response services with the similar objectives of preserving lives and property and the environment. These services are collectively called Fire Prevention Services and they encompass the other two "Lines-of-Defense";

• Fire Safety Education o Identified risks in the community (legislated mandate) o Meet legislated mandates (e.g. smoke alarm program) o Vulnerable Occupancies (legislated mandate) o On request and/or in support of broader messaging

• Fire Code Enforcement o On request or complaint (legislated mandate) o Vulnerable Occupancies (legislated mandate, e.g. care homes) o Identified risks in the community (legislated mandate) o Development or re-development (required mandate) o Laying charges under the Provincial Offences Act (legislated mandate)

• Fire & Explosion Investigation o All fires are reportable to the Province (legislated mandate) o Origin , cause and circumstances of fires/explosions must be determined

(legislated mandate) o In support of Police and Provincial officials when required.

• By-Law enforcement o Open air fires by-law (municipal mandate) o Fireworks by-law (federal legislated mandate)

In support of Emergency Response and Fire Prevention divisions, the Department also provides Administration Services and Firefighter Training Services. Administration services is largely directed towards internal departmental/corporate needs, but also has significant interaction with the public. Training services is almost exclusively directed towards internal departmental needs, and thereby significantly affects the delivery of both emergency response and fire prevention services to the public.

The Consultant

The lead consultant, KNY Architects, of Burlington, {the Consultant) is a highly experienced architecture firm in the municipal and private arenas, with experience in designing fire stations among other building types.

Sub-consultants MMM Group and NivoNuvo Consulting Inc. provided the expertise for Part 1 of the Study. MMM Group is expert at data analysis and in particular city planning with extensive fire station location experience. NivoNuvo is an expert in fire services.

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Consultant's Assumptions. Conclusions. and Recommendations

A number of assumptions were made along the way as part of the analysis in Part 1 of the Study.

A fundamental assumption is data1 collected over past years (2000 - 2011) accurately represents trends in service delivery into the foreseeable future. Incident volumes have been climbing over the time period analyzed due in large measure to the volume of medical assistance calls. During the same period, "core" service calls (i.e. not medical­assistance) have also grown.

In the most recent three years (2012-2014) since the data used in the Study, overall and core incident volumes appear to be stabilizing into a more moderate trend.

The second assumption is, the pattern of response locations throughout the City will generally be the same as they have been in recent years, except as they will be influenced by population and development growth. Basically, most incidents occur where there are the most buildings and people.

Two vs. Three Fire Stations

Early on it was recognized that the current career emergency response staffing level (minimum 8 firefighters) might not be sufficient to adequately staff three fire stations for the most efficient and effective emergency response to "core" service calls. In fact, that was one of the key questions to be answered by this Study. In other words, since the current staffing level is only sufficient for 2 firefighters on each fire truck - spread over three fire stations - does that · negatively impact the assembly time of sufficient firefighters at any incident where staffing demands2 are high? The answer is yes.

This "yes" answer became very apparent when the Consultant developed the Emergency Response Deployment3 Profiles. The Profile timelines show that reaching benchmark staffing levels is substantially influenced by the number of fire stations. In other words, deployment from one, or alternatively from two, or alternatively from three fire stations has an impact on staff assembly-time. Two fire stations turned out to be most effective. This means that the assembly of critical staffing at incidents is not effective with current career staffing levels if they are manning more than two fire stations.

Career vs. Volunteer Response-Times

The prompt delivery of emergency services is largely defined by the response-times of the career firefighter staff. Through data analysis it was discovered that the amount of

1 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Section 2.5, Figure 5

2 These are the _incidents where civilian/firefighter death/injury and high property dollar losses are likely to occur.

3 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Repmi, Section 4 .3, Figures 20-32)

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time that it takes a volunteer firefighter to react, to respond from home to the incident, and get dressed to deploy (or alternatively, the time it takes to respond to the fire station to man a fire truck and then continue responding to the incident scene) almost always exceeds the total response-time of the career staff to the same incident.

Effectively this means that the location of volunteer fire stations is less relevant for the purposes of calculating assembly-times for volunteer firefighters. This also means that other considerations such as cost, facility condition and adequacy, organizational efficiency, staff integration effectiveness, access to training resources (etc.) are the more pertinent factors to consider in siteing volunteer fire stations.

Staffing at Core Incidents

Welland's average on-duty career emergency response staffing is between 8 and 9 firefighters daily. The collective agreement with the career firefighters requires no less than 8 firefighters on duty. With 8 firefighters Welland does riot have sufficient career firefighter staff to handle high-staffing demand incidents, in particular structure fires. This means that our volunteer firefighters, and in some cases mutual aid firefighters, will be required to provide the total staffing numbers to handle most fire events.

The average number of volunteer firefighters responding to significant fire incidents in 2012 was 19. The average response time for these 19 volunteers was 13 minutes (median time was 9.75 minutes).

According to the Ontario Fire Marshal4. the staffing required to handle a fire at the Lower Effective Response Level for a High-Risk fire incident is 36 firefighters. This staffing is the initial full alarm assignment. The Response Deployment Profiles show that Welland cannot reliably achieve that level of staffing except over a significant amount of time as volunteer firefighters arrive, and only if more than the average number respond. Such a fire happens several times each year in Welland.

When high-staffing demand incidents occur a call-back of off-duty career personnel ensures there is coverage for a second incident or for assistance with the original incident. Call-back involves overtime costs and takes time to assemble the staff.

Response Benchmarks

Welland's travel-time percentage for the initial arriving crew of 2 firefighters is very good (i.e. 86% of incidents are within 4 minutes), and almost meets the NFPA-17105 best practices standard of 240 seconds 90% of the time. However, 2 firefighters are not able to handle a fire incident.

4 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Tables 13, 14 on page 62.

5 NFP A-1710, National Fire Protection Association Standard for the Organizat,ion and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, 2010 Edition.

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Furthermore, NFPA-1710 says the travel-time for the initial full alarm assignment should not exceed 480 seconds 90% of the time. As noted above, for a High-Risk fire incident this is at least 36 firefighters.

The data analysis results portrayed in the Study's Emergency Response Oeployment6

Profiles shows that the complement of Welland career and/or volunteer firefighters is not sufficient to meet incident initial full alarm staffing targets for Moderate-Risk or High-Risk buildings within the timelines denoted in NFPA-1710. Indeed, for High-Risk building fires the total staffing numbers cannot be achieved at all without mutual aid assistance. There are many buildings meeting this risk profile in Welland and fires in these buildings occur annually.

Data shows the majority of incidents occur where the population is highest and/or most7 dense. The Study identified that the objective of improvement in assembly of critical staffing (initial full alarm) at most incidents can be achieved, but at some loss of initial arriving crew response-time to some incidents.

In Welland, improving benchmark performance for initial full alarm staffing response­times can be accomplished by; better career fire station locations; and/or reduced turn­out time at ·these stations through design; and/or increased numbers of volunteer and/or career staffing.

Mutual-aid assistance is used at times where staffing needs exceed availability, both at the incident scene and/or to provide city coverage for short periods.

The dependence on volunteer firefighters and the time it takes to assemble the volunteer firefighters places an additional emphasis on achieving the most effective . response of the career firefighter staff. Seconds count. With an optimized on-duty career firefighter response there is an improved opportunity to contain a high staffing demand incident before it reaches the projected total staffing demand levels.

Intersection Control Devices

The Consultant has recommended that we investigate traffic signal priority control technology (signal pre-emption for emergency vehicles). Tests show how much time is "lost" when a fire truck needs to slow and stop at an intersection. For a simple stop and then go (i.e. a stop sign with no traffic), the loss is about 10 seconds per stop. If this stop occurs at a red traffic light, there is an additional 5-10 seconds lost as the fire truck safely negotiates cross-traffic and vehicle/pedestrian congestion at the intersection.

Over a lengthy response in the city, with many traffic lights on the route, a potential travel-time reduction of 1 O's of seconds, or even a minute could be a significant positive outcome if fire trucks could control the traffic lights for fastest passage.

6 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Figures 20-32

7 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Section 2.4.3, Figure 4

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Coverage at Distance Extremes

Some properties in Welland are located in the outer areas of the City, at a further distance from fire stations than the majority of the population. Response-times to these locations are longer than the norm. Fortunately, the number of incidents in these areas is proportionally low.

In some municipalities strategies have been adopted to avoid the costs of building and maintaining fire stations in those remoter low-demand areas. In those municipalities, development at a distance from fire stations requires additional fire protection in homes. St. Catharines requires residential sprinkler systems. Waterloo requires home alarm systems that automatically report fires . Both approaches "buy time" offsetting longer response-times and thereby potentially saving lives and property.

Available Land

The Consultant has recommended that two new fire stations be constructed. One in the vicinity of 555 Prince Charles Drive and the other in the vicinity of the corner of Lincoln and King Streets.

The City has purchased a 4.1 acre site near the corner of Lincoln and King Streets. The shape and size of this property will allow the construction of a two-story fire station, headquarters offices, and a training facility .

A location is required on Prince Charles Drive in the vicinity of the property gifted by Canadian Tire Financial Corp gift to the City. It is estimated that least 2.5 acres will be required for the Prince Charles Drive station.

Reusing Existing Fire Stations

The Consultant considered the existing fire station at 636 King Street as a possible continuing location so it was included in the Study analysis. Although the location was considered, the existing station itself is unsuitable.

The existing fire station at 345 Prince Charles Drive was not specifically considered for redevelopment since the land size is far too small for anything more suitable to be sited there. The existing station on this site is not suitable for continued occupation into the future.

The Consultant concluded that the existing King Street station was not in the correct location and needed to be located 7 blocks north of its present site, in the area of King and Lincoln Streets. The Consultant did not recommend replicating the current temporary situation at the Welland Hydro building on East Main Street. In effect, the Consultant's recommendation is to combine the existing King Street and Hydro Building stations together into a new station at King and Lincoln .

The Consultant concluded that a new station on Prince Charles Drive was recommended but that the location needed to be about 1 kilometer north of the present station in order to improve response-times from this location to the north, north-west and north-east parts of the City.

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Both existing volunteer fire stations are very old and there are significant constraints on their continued suitability. The Consultant recommended that both volunteer stations be closed and volunteer staff and equipment should be combined into the proposed two new stations.

Current Station Physical Problems

The Consultant has highlighted a number of critical issues in the current stations. Some are critical from a service delivery perspective and others are critical to meet human rights or other legislated mandates, all buildings have critical deficiencies that will be costly to rectify.

Turnout-times are affected by station design. A well designed career staffed station requires that the relationship between the trucks (in the bays) and the remainder of the work spaces is optimized for reduced turnout-times. If firefighters need to climb/descend stairs, move down long or narrow hallways, pass through several rooms or locked doors, have difficulty getting dressed due to space restraints, have difficulty driving out of the building quickly due to door size, bay space or location constraints, etc, the result will be longer turnout-times to every8 incident. Time lost in turnout cannot be made up in travel­time on the road.

The second critical issue is the ability to house and work around the fire trucks. Modern fire trucks tend to be long, high, and wide. Older fire stations are too low, too short and too narrow to adequately accommodate modern vehicles. Significant modifications have been done in recent years to stations 2 and 5 to permit newer fire trucks to actually enter the fire stations without crashing into the door openings. However the station bays are still too low and narrow and short. Increasing bay width will require costly station additions and moving load-bearing walls, if even possible. Increasing bay length will require costly building additions. It is not feasible to raise the buildings as needed. These deficiencies potentially affect response-time by impacting preparedness, are potential health and safety risks, and will involve significant capital projects to adc;iress.

The third critical issue is the consideration of increasing volunteer firefighter numbers in future. The existing volunteer fire stations are struggling to accommodate the current number of assigned volunteer firefighters (35 each). For this reason alone, new volunteer firefighter facilities will need to be contemplated if we are to continue relying on volunteer firefighters in future years.

The fourth critical issue is gender equality and lack of facilities. Only the King Street station has washroom facilities for female staff. There are no female locker and change facilities in any Welland fire station.

The fifth critical issue is AODA9 compliance. None of the Welland fire stations is AODA compliant. Three of the stations are multi-story and will also require elevators.

8 Over a 50 year building service-life, this means between 120,000 and 150,000 incidents will have longer response-times than might be the case with well-designed fire stations.

9 (AODA) Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005

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The sixth critical issue is energy efficiency. Modern buildings are substantially better at using minimum utilities, particularly for heating, cooling and lighting. Fire stations are large buildings and the older ones have little to no insulation and old HVAC systems.

The last issue is the physical condition of the existing buildings. Although not a component of this Study or a subject of this report, it is worth noting that the Facilities Management Division of Infrastructure Services has undertaken a partial review of facility needs to address safety, building and site conditions, and AODA requirements. It is anticipated that over the next few years substantial projects will be requi'red to modify and/or repair the existing facilities.

Automatic Aid with Thorold and Pelham

The Consultant examined automatic-aid opportunities to improving staffing and response-time performance along the City's northern areas. The response of crews from Thorold and Pelham were considered10

. ·

The Consultant concluded that Thorold and Pelham could not assist Welland with initial arriving crew response-times. Welland, Pelham and Thorold all have fire stations about the same distance from Welland's northern edge. However, since Welland with career staffed trucks can arrive into these areas significantly before either Pelham or Thorold volunteer firefighters can (due to longer turn-out times for volunteers) the opportunity to assist Welland, at least on initial arriving crews, is not there. For high staffing demand incidents, assistance from Thorold and/or Pelham is currently used to fill out initial full alarm numbers where necessary through mutual aid.

A similar opportunity exists with Niagara Falls' fire station on Schisler Road for responses into the rural east side of Welland. In a similar fashion to that discussed for Thorold/Pelham above, there may only be an opportunity to bolster initial full alarm staffing availability for high staffing demand incidents on that side of Welland.

Comparator Municipalities

The Consultant chose 6 municipalities to compare with Welland plus the next largest and next smallest municipality in Niagara, for a total of 8 comparators 11

. The Consultant chose municipalities that were similar to Welland in population, geography, and (importantly) those served by a composite (career and volunteer) fire service.

The Ontario Fire Marshal's office (OFM) has identified only 17 municipalities in Ontario with populations between 35k and 75k. Of these, 9 are composite (including Welland), 5 are full-time only, and 3 are volunteer only. The consultant chose 4 comparators from the OFM list that bracketed Welland's population and seemed most similar in service delivery factors. He then added lnnisfil (33k) and Orillia (31 k).

10 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Sections 4.2, and 2.4.3

11 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 1 Report, Sections 2.6

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The OFM statistics shows that Welland has some significant challenges. Of the 17 municipalities on the OFM list, only Kawartha Lakes had a higher annual incident volume12 than Welland . Only Cornwall, St. Thomas and Woodstock (all are career only departments) had a higher population density than Welland. Welland has (by a significant margin) the lowest land area per fire station of all 17 municipalities and comparators. Welland's fire budget/$1,000 of assessment13 is $2.23 compared to the average of the 17 municipalities at $1.69. The highest is Cornwall at $3.11 and the lowest is Brant County14 at $0.64.

Space Requirements

The Consultant determined the overall square footage requirements 15 for the two proposed fire stations. The total floor space required for Fire Hall 1 (two-story building), includes administration, fire prevention, training, trucks and equipment, career and volunteer accommodations, and mechanical areas. Fire station #1 requires approximately 31,300 square feet. The total floor space required for Fire Hall 2 (one­story building), includes, trucks and equipment, career and volunteer accommodations, and mechanical areas. Fire station #2 requires approximately 20,000 square feet.

Design Concepts

The Consultant discusses in the Part 2 report the fundamental design concepts for Welland's fire stations, in no particular order;

• Post disaster design, meaning the buildings must remain functional even after a foreseeable disaster.

• The buildings will have 24/7/365 occupancy, which is three times the typical usage hours of an office building.

• Expect a minimum 50 year life span, and realistically as long as 75 years as the· current buildings have been used.

• Complementary to the architectural and heritage legacy of the City and neighbourhoods.

• Designed to enhance the delivery of emergency services by reducing turnout­times, facilitating proper equipment deployment and maintenance.

12 Statistics from 2011; Welland 2,357 incidents (pop: 50,300), Kawartha Lakes 2,802 incidents (pop: 73,214)

13 Welland's exceptionally low assessment values affect this comparator.

14 A volunteer firefighter only service.

15 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 2 Report, Sections 8.0

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• Include City growth/development projections and the impact that will have on staffing levels and service demands (both emergency and non-emergency services).

• Multi-purpose provisions through the flexibility of spaces. For example, training room configuration to permit use as an alternate Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).

Concept Proposal and Specifications

In the Part 3 report, the Consultant developed floor plans containing all the needed spaces, in accordance with the Design Concepts. Also proposed is conceptual outside views of fire station #1 (i .e. elevations). The exterior concept for fire station #1 is quite detailed whereas the concept for station #2 is less so.

The station #1 elevation views shows a fire station that intentionally echoes some of the key architectural signatures of the historic old Central Fire Hall. Nora Reid's analysis 16 of the historic station's architectural fundamentals was used as a guide in developing the fai;ade for the station. The building behind the fai;ade will be thoroughly modern and efficient.

Station #2 is conceived as a floor plan repeat of the #1 station, except without the second floor, and without the large training room and with one less truck bay. The volunteer firefighters' accommodations would be moved to the ground floor. It is thought that the exterior architectural design for fire station #2 would be simpler and therefore more economical, and better fit-in with the west-side neighbourhood.

Costs

The Consultant's Part 3 report provides costs estimates 17 for both stations. These are developed based on the estimated square footage, intended longevity, and harsh usage of each building. Two ranges of costs are shown, one based at the likely lower limit of cost and the other at the likely highest range of costs. Associated "soft" costs are also shown, some of which may or may not be needed in our case, but are typical for such projects. Better cost estimates will come after a detailed architectural design is completed.

One decision that will have to be made is whether or not the fire stations should meet LEED18 standards. The cost estimates provided by the Consultant include the costs for a

16 "Central Fire Hall", Nora Reid, Welland LACAC, 1992; Report on the Designation on the Central Fire Hall, Division Street and Hellems Avenue, LACAC Report, City of Welland, 1993; "Central Fire Hall", Heritage Welland Committee, 2006; The City of Welland under By-law No. 10045.

17 Reference; Facility Needs Study, Part 3 Report, Sections 9.0

18 LEED is "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design"

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LEED building. LEED buildings are higher in cost to design and construct but should be lower in operating costs and environmental footprint.

An allowance is made in the cost estimates to provide $1,500k for the construction of an outdoor training structure and amenities. The need for this facility is acute and will be the subject of a separate report.

The cost estimate (from high to low estimate) represents a 15% variation on the estimated costs. Costs are driven by square footage of the buildings, the quality of the materials used, and the amount of infrastructure included in the building (e.g . computer cabling).

The Consultant has provided escalated cost estimates based on his recent experiences. Building cost escalation has been averaging 6% per year. This means that the Consultant's 2014 based estimate of costs, to construct the two new fire stations, will annually increase substantially in excess of the consumer price index.

Next Steps

An architectural contract for detailed design and specification of the new fire stations is needed to finalize design parameters such as floor plans. It will also refine cost estimates and allow input into the final arrangement, finish and utility of the buildings. Architectural design is a necessary step to get the project to the "shovel-ready" stage.

A decision on the exact location of Station #2 is required before architectural design can proceed. City owned property on the former Canadian Tire lands is a possibility. Another possibility is a site in the immediate vicinity, possibly on the Fitch Street School property, if an agreement can be reached to use it.

Timing of construction for both new stations bears examining. The priority needs to be the King-Lincoln station first. The lease is expired on the temporary facilities at Welland Hydro and the current King Street station is in need of major expenditures. The new King-Lincoln station will facilitate closing out the Hydro, King Street and Schisler Rd. stations and will become the new headquarters offices.

The new Prince Charles Drive station will be smaller than the King-Lincoln station. Construction of the new Prince Charles Drive station will need to proceed at nearly the same time as (or very shortly after) the King-Lincoln station.

Without both new stations, the goal of improving response capabilities will not be fully realized. Without both new stations it will not be possible to close all 5 of the old fire stations; there will not be enough room in only one new station to house all career and volunteer staff and equipment. Therefore some of the old stations will need to remain in service until both new stations are constructed.

If the period of time between now and the start of construction of the first station, and/or the second station, is of any appreciable length then repairs and upgrades to the old stations still in service will need to be undertaken, for example AODA requirements and structural repairs.

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FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION:

The detailed cost estimates contained in the Consultant's Part 3 report show the potential project costs 19 ranging between $23.Sm and $26. 7m for the construction and commissioning of both fire stations. The basic construction costs of the fire stations alone range between $18m and $20.9m. The remaining costs, as estimated, include architectural fees, training facility, permits., furniture, moving, and various other commissioning costs.

Finance staff have offered the following comments;

In preparation of the City 10-year Capital Budget, Finance Staff has reviewed and discussed the capital needs with all departments. Although Staff acknowledges the Consultant's discussion of the urgency of the Facility Needs, Finance Staff has presented these project in the 10-year Capital Budget as follows:

Year Item Amount Financing

2018 Architectural/Engineering for Station #1

858,000 Debt: 858,000

2019 Construction of Station #1

13,000,000 Development charges: Debt: Other qov't sources:

352,750 4,067,250 8,580,000

' 2020 Purchase of land, Station #2

200,000 Reserve fund: 200,000

2021 Architectural/Engineering for Station #2

572,000 Other gov't sources: 572,000

2022 Construction of Station #2

7,700,000 Development charges: Debt: Other gov't sources:

790,000 1,718,800 5,128,200

As noted above, projects cannot proceed without funding from other Government grants or sources.

OTHER DEPARTMENT IMPLICATIONS:

None at this time. Implementation of full recommendations arising from Parts 2 and Parts 3 will likely involve other departments.

All costs shown in this section are in un-escalated 2014 dollars 19

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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:

The Consultant has completed all Parts of the Facility Needs Study and submitted his three reports.

The Consultant's Part 1 report identifies the optimum number of fire stations for Welland that will improve the ability of the existing staffing resources to effectively deal with the core service demands. The Consultant has concluded that the City should reduce the number of career staffed stations from three to two. The two stations will be at different sites from any current station.

The Consultant also recommends that the volunteer stations be integrated into the career stations, thereby reducing the total number of City fire stations from five to two. There are significant anticipated benefits of doing so, which are detailed in the Consultant's report.

The Consultant's Part 2 report discusses design concepts and estimates square footage requirements for the two fire stations based on architectural norms, best practices for fire station design, and City needs. The needs assessment includes spaces for operations, administration , fire prevention, and training divisions.

The Consultant's Part 3 report presents concept floor plans for two fire stations as well as concept elevation (i.e. outside) views . Also included is an outline specification of material to be used in construction, a refined square footage calculation and a range of cost estimates based on the usage and size of the proposed fire stations. One station is estimated at 31,000 sq ft (in two-stories) and the other at 20,000 sq ft overall.

ATTACHMENTS:

Consultant's Part 2 and Part 3 Report (under separate cover)

Consultant's Part 1 report was provided to Council in June 2014