The opening of Amherstburg’s new fire hall is being pushed back. Amherstburg Coun. Molly Allaire posted to social media that the contractor is experiencing ongoing internal construction delays, with the latest schedule now calling for the facility to be ready for takeover in mid-November. That’s another delay for the $11.3-million project at Meloche Road and Simcoe Street, next to the Libro Centre. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in September 2024, with the hall originally slated to be open by August 2025. That timeline was then pushed to March 2026 after the town pointed to harsh winter weather conditions that brought construction to a complete stop during certain periods. Allaire says the latest delay is frustrating, but the town is now waiting on the contractor. “The construction company is just experiencing some internal delays and so it’s causing the date to just get pushed back a little bit more, continuously, so unfortunately that’s all we can do is just wait it out and see what happens.” She says construction is continuing, but progress has been slow. “I drive by it daily. It’s slow progress, but everyone keeps getting confused. We just cleared it up in council the other day. It is a shingle roof. It looks like steel right now, but it is a shingle roof. It’s slowly progressing, the walls are up and everything. It’s a slow progress.” She says the latest delay is particularly frustrating because the decision to build the new hall was made by the previous council. “It’s really hard to be able to comment on something that is not a choice that you made, but also I had the chance to vote against it. I think it was like two or three separate occasions and I did vote against it three times,” Allaire says. “And now it’s just frustrating because it’s like, ‘oh, I didn’t win the vote and I lost all the control and this is what we’re dealing with’. But now it’s just deal with it with grace.” The town says it will continue working with the contractor as construction moves forward. The new station will combine Station #1, which is on Sandwich Street next to town hall, and Station #3.
