Council unanimously approved the land purchase for the new RCMP station Oct. 11, as identified in the Ten-Year Financial Strategy for the town.
The purchase price for the 2.095 acres of land, located along Highway 1A in the existing Heartland community, was established through a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2014 between the town and Apex Land Corp.
The total cost to build the station is earmarked at $10.8 million. Of that amount, $2.8 million is from MSI capital grant approval from 2014 and is already in the bank and will be used to purchase the land.
“Safety and security needs to be one of our top priorities,” said Coun. Morgan Nagel, joking that it’s not often he approves municipal spending.
Mike Korman, economic development manager with the town, confirmed that this location was selected as “ideal” for the new station – currently located at 359 First Street East – as “95 per cent of their calls come from west of Highway 1A” and that the station would have more than one access road to that highway.
The project will meet the town’s needs for the next 30 years.
Coun. Mary Lou Eckmeier made a comment that 30 years “isn’t really a long time by the time we get this paid off,” to which Korman replied that as the town continues to grow, it would be more likely that eventually a second station would be added (rather than an expansion of the Heartland detachment).
The remaining $8 million needed for design and construction of the RCMP station would come from debt servicing.
“For planning purposes we assumed $840,000 would cover debt payments on a 10-year term once the facility is built,” explained Paige Milner, senior manager of corporate services with the town.
“That $840,000 is already funded in the budget from growth tax revenues so there would be no tax increase. As a portion of the facility will be used for rural policing, a rent from the RCMP will be collected but that is yet to be finalized (at an) estimated $330,000 a year, which would help if there are higher costs from the new facility.”
