Town council has finally approved the construction contract to upgrade the Innisfail Heliport, an emotionally-charged community project that has a projected total budget of $641,541.

Council approved an administration recommendation at its Jan. 10 regular meeting to award the contract to Red Deer’s Timcon Construction Ltd., which was the low bidder from four received by the town.

The construction cost of $489,955 that was approved last week by council was originally proposed last year by Timcon but that did not get approved during a meeting last August as council decided the expenditure should be moved into the 2022 capital projects list.

Innisfail’s heliport is one of the few of its kind in the province that is managed and funded solely by the municipality, and not by the province.

The hospital-area heliport, which was created in 1998 through the Rotary Club of Innisfail’s fundraising efforts, was shut down in mid-2020 after being deemed non-compliant with numerous Transport Canada guidelines.

Since then, STARS air ambulance service has been moved to the Big Bend Airport, located just west of town.

“STARS is an invaluable service to the community and having that heliport across from the hospital is going to save critical time when the patient needs it the most, and I am very pleased to see this project moving forward after many months of consultation,” said Town of Innisfail Mayor Jean Barclay, noting those consultations included the public and local physicians.

“I think it was clear from the vast majority of the community that they wanted the STARS service back at the hospital where it’s closer, and not having trains getting in the way. It just saves such critical time of the utmost importance.”

Steven Kennedy, director of operational services for the Town of Innisfail, told council on Jan. 10 the four bids the town received for the project ranged from Timcon’s lowest at $489,955 to a high bid of $650,100 from Emcee Construction.

On top of the $489,955 construction cost, the project budget also includes an additional $80,630 for engineering and approvals, $12,000 for an operation manual and training, $10,000 for material testing and a 10 per cent contingency of $48,956.

Once construction is completed, there will be an annual cost of $81,000 for training and operations of the facility, a figure the town estimated and released a year ago.

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