The city of Port Moody will again consider borrowing millions of dollars from the province to build a new Number 1 fire hall once a task force report into cost-saving measures is presented to city council next month.

After voters approved a $16-million loan to build the replacement hall in the April 16 referendum, council rejected the plans in favour of finding a more affordable option.

Mayor Joe Trasolini then selected a fire hall task force — made up of councillors who voted against borrowing — to find new hall construction, location and funding options and report back to council with their findings June 28.

On Tuesday, the special task force unanimously asked council to reconsider its rejection of the provincial loan, keeping open the option of borrowing a lesser amount.

“We feel that we’re going to achieve some significant savings but we want to keep the option open for partial borrowing if needed at the end of the day,” said Coun. Karen Rockwell, chair of the fire hall task force.

Those savings will likely be garnered through building a smaller hall than initially planned on a less expensive plot of land than the current fire hall site at the corner of Murray Street and Ioco Road.

The city also looked at another potential cost-saving measure at the fire department this week, this time in its staff, fishing for interest in early retirement packages among a handful of the department’s fire captains.

Letters went out last week to four Port Moody fire captains over 55 years of age to gauge their interest in a one-time lump sum buyout of $25,000 each.

“You have to realize that firefighting is a very special profession that’s very physically demanding,” explained Port Moody city manager Gaetan Royer. “Retirement ages are different for these kinds of very demanding professions compared to other professions.”

The deadline to submit applications for the early retirement — effective either July 31 or Sept. 30 — is today [Friday] at 4 p.m.

tcoyne@tricitynews.com