Celebration of completion of Bear Paw fire hall set for Sunday

The Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department will be hosting an open house at their new and long-awaited fire hall south of Havre from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Department Chief Josh Bebee said the event is a thankyou to the community that supported the construction of the hall, which the department has been trying to get for years.

"We are so happy," he said. " ... Just having a place that we can call home, it's an amazing feeling."

Efforts to get a fire hall for the department have been going on for more than a decade, essentially starting with former Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Giles Gregoire, who left the department thousands of dollars when he died the grandfather of Bear Paw Volunteer Fire Department Treasurer Brad Gregoire.

After receiving support from the community and various organizations in the area it finally became, starting with a reality and construction of the building was completed in July of last year.

However, the department still needed a bit more money to complete construction of an office and other things the department was hoping for and their subsequent fundraisers went extremely well, Bebee said.

"This community really came out in force," Bebee said.

Fire department members said the hall will not only protect their vehicles from the elements and save them money on repairs, but will provide a more centralized and convenient location for them to keep their equipment.

They said it will also provide an area for record storage and a space for meetings.

Bebee said they have been able to do all of those things.

He said the hall contained all of their vehicles and equipment through the winter and were ready to go the moment they needed them.

"It's been working great," he said. "Response times have been good. We've been able to have our meetings there. It's been awesome."

Bebee said the office, which James Albertson Construction donated its time to work on, has allowed them to do a lot with the building and now they have all their documents in one place.

He said they are still waiting on a few little things for the hall, like cabinets and some baseboards, but all the large projects are done and they have the funds to cover the few small things they have left.

He said he was hoping to have those finishing touches done by the time of the open house, but things didn't work out that way, unfortunately.

However, Bebee said, all the major work is done and that is a serious weight off the minds of everyone in the department.

He said the department wants to do this event not just to celebrate the completion of the hall, but as a thank-you to the people who supported its construction, and the projects that came after.

He said it's been a long winter and it will be good to get out and have some food and drinks.

"Let's have a nice time out there," Bebee said.