Fire brigades to be relocated

The Killcare Rural Fire Station is to be relocated to an alternative site after engineering investigations have found it would be too costly to renovate the current station.

To comply with the Building Code of Australia, the current station would need external masonry walls and its concrete slab underpinned with pile foundations.

Gosford Council decided the station would be moved to a 24ha block of land on Maitland Bay Dr, Killcare.

The council also proposed to amalgamate the Empire Bay Brigade with the Killcare Brigade at its new location, as the Empire Bay station was also expected to need an upgrade soon.

The proposed station would be 16m by 16 m, consisting of three bays and a concrete-asphalt driveway measuring approximately 16m by 8m.

It was also proposed that a 30m radio tower be erected on the site in the future to enhance the bushfire radio network and the paging system.

The cost of the new three-bay station was estimated at between $190,000 and $200,000.

To fund the project, the council decided to sell the existing Killcare station, which had an estimated value of $160,000.

Other funds would come from an allocation of $80,000 from the NSW Rural Fire Fighting Fund and $10,000 from budgeted recurrent funding.

The surplus would meet costs of rezoning the land at the existing property and establishing operations at the new station.

Council agenda, March 7