Ground breaks on $34-million integrated library and fire station in Walden

A public library and permanent fire station are coming to Walden, after ground broke Wednesday on the joint capital project.

Mayor Jeromy Farkas, Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston and officials from the Calgary Fire Department and Calgary Public Library celebrated construction getting underway on the $34.2-million joint facility that will combine a Calgary Public Library branch with a two-bay fire hall on city-owned land at 969 Walden Dr. S.E.

The project marks the first time a public library and fire station will be integrated in Calgary, according to Farkas, who argued co-locating municipal facilities makes more efficient use of public dollars and city-owned land.

In addition to municipal funding, Farkas noted the provincial government contributed $4.1 million to the project via the Local Government Fiscal Framework.

“I think there’s something particularly fitting for us about bringing these two specific services together,” the mayor said. “One helps keep our communities safe; the other makes them stronger. Together, they represent the kind of thoughtful, responsible investment we need to be making as our city continues to grow, because we know Calgarians expect us to make best use of every single taxpayer dollar.”

The future library branch continues a period of recent momentum for the Calgary Public Library, following similar ground-breakings at other branches in Belmont in the southwest and Symons Valley in the northwest, which broke ground just last month.

The future Walden branch will be the first public library in Ward 14, according to Sara Meilleur, CEO of Calgary Public Library. Its completion will mean that all 14 of Calgary’s wards will have at least one library branch.

The future 11,000-square-foot Walden branch will be fully serviced, Meilleur said, including collections, computers, children’s spaces, meeting rooms and programming space.

It will be a vast improvement for residents of Walden, she added, noting the only library services the neighbourhood has had for the past few years is a micro-library housed in a 64-sq.-ft. greenhouse.

“While it’s been a hit with residents, with more than 200 books circulated each week, we know this community deserves more,” Meilleur said, adding the future Walden branch will also respond to growing demand for library services in other fast-growing southeast communities, including Legacy, Chaparral and Wolf Willow.

“It is an amazing testament to our growth and the need for critical civic infrastructure like libraries and fire halls to keep pace with that growth.”

As for the fire station, the future 15,000-sq.-ft. facility will replace a temporary fire hall that has served a large swath of southeast Calgary since 2020. The temporary hall, located on the same land, will remain operational and won’t be decommissioned until the permanent facility has opened in two years.

Fire Chief Steve Dongworth said the temporary hall has served southeast Calgary well for the last six years, but argued a permanent facility will provide various advantages — most notably, providing more space for additional fire apparatus. The current facility only has room to house one fire engine, he pointed out.

“We will have the ability . . . to put a ladder or a tower in this station, which could well improve response times for that measurement within this community,” he said.

While the new hall won’t likely improve response times for a first fire truck to arrive at a scene, Dongworth said the additional capacity should speed up how long it takes a full crew of three trucks to respond to a call.

He noted that Calgary Fire Department is not currently meeting its council-directed response time targets of seven minutes for an initial truck and 11 minutes for a full crew response on 90 per cent of calls. Currently, the department is averaging seven minutes, 40 seconds for a first truck response and 12 minutes, 30 seconds for a full-unit response.

“That’s something we’ll try and address in the budget process that’s coming up in November, for sure,” Dongworth said.

Johnston, the area’s representative on council, said the facilities are a long time coming, as they represent the first public civic infrastructure built in Ward 14 in the last five decades.

“Hopefully, this is one of many projects that are going to come down to Ward 14,” he said.

“It’s great to see something that’s going to benefit anybody and everybody that wants to visit it, not just Ward 14, but neighbouring communities.”

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