(waymarking.com)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

closed last june

Innisfail town council advances discussion on heliport rehabilitation

Mar 7, 2021 | 11:36 AM

Rehabilitation of Innisfail’s heliport has taken another step forward.

Town council has agreed in principle to restoring operations at the Innisfail Heliport’s current location, across the street from the Innisfail Health Centre. This comes after considerable research and stakeholder engagement over the past several months.

It was in June 2020, rdnewsNOW reported, that use of the heliport was being suspended for one year in order to address its future.

A risk assessment concluded it would cost about $250,000 to bring up to standard, including improvements to fencing, lighting, navigation markers, an updated operations manual, and resurfacing.

The need for those repairs rendered the heliport unsafe and a liability risk for the Town.

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“We’ve heard loudly and clearly from stakeholders and the community on both the importance of retaining a heliport in Innisfail and the operational value of doing so at the facility’s existing site,” said Mayor Jim Romane.

He adds there will be further engagement with the community before all is said and done.

“We’ve of course learned over the last year or so that this does pose some challenges from a safety and liability perspective; however, council’s endorsement last week can be seen as the first step toward better understanding these challenges and exploring the various options toward overcoming them.”

By agreeing to the matter in principle, council has asked administration to allocate time and resources toward consideration of what it would take to recommission the heliport.

Full project funding will need to be considered at a later date, but for now, council has approved $10,000 to advance the development of a facility operations plan. Tendering documents will also go out for site design.

The heliport was being used jointly by Navigation Canada, STARS Air Ambulance and AHS Air Ambulance. There have been, on average, four to six outbound transfers made at the heliport annually.

There was some thought of moving the heliport to the Innisfail Airport, which would eliminate the need for certain personnel to be on the ground when an aircraft arrives, however, the airport is 12 kilometres from the hospital, as opposed to across the road.

The Town says it will share more details on the heliport project as they become available.