Whether or not the Colborne Rd. fire hall should be moved was discussed Monday.
A budget to rebuild Station 3, at the corner of Colborne and Michigan Ave., was outlined for Sarnia council during its special meeting to discuss corporate priorities and strategic planning.
It's recommended $1-million be allocated toward the project in 2018, with another $830,000 in 2019.
Councillor Mike Kelch wondered if that location still served the community best.
"We're talking about how the needs are shifting, and we're basically going to knock that thing down and build a new one from scratch," said Kelch. "Is that still the right place to do it?"
Chief John Kingyens said it's still a good location.
"Next year we'll have some better analytics with our FDM [Fire Data Management report]," said Kingyens. "We're tied to response times for the first vehicle. So we need 240 seconds travel time. That building is connected to Sandy Lane, Bluewater Health and to the east, Michigan and Murphy -- there's a number of vulnerable occupancies in that area. So that station is well situated to respond to all three corners."
In addition to aging infrastructure, Chief Kingyens told council that balancing overtime costs and managing long-term absences continue to be challenges.
In 2014, City firefighters went from working 12-hour shifts to 24-hour shifts in an effort to reduce overtime.
Chief Administrative Officer Margaret Misek-Evans said a report evaluating the shift trial will be given to council next month.
