A significant addition is being built onto the municipal shop in the town of Woodlands.

The 1.2 million dollar project has been on the town's budget for four to five years now and Reeve Trevor King says construction has been progressing well with the hope of the new shop being ready in the spring. He adds it's pretty exciting to have the new shop nearly completed, noting it has been quite a process.

"It's been quite a process trying to decide what it was that we wanted to build and how we wanted to position it on the property that we have there. But in the end, we've come up with the way it's going to attach to the old shop, and running it the same way. Of course with that comes some upgrades to the old shop, cosmetically on the outside so everything looks uniform. In the end, it's going to look very attractive."

Other upgrades to the shop include making the building more energy efficient, as well as adding a new lunch room and offices for Public Works. King explains expansion also includes additional equipment bays.

"So it's a five-bay shop, with a wash bay, and it'll be attached to the old [shop] so they can go back and forth and still use the old one for storing stuff and actually servicing some of the equipment in it as well. Also, in the old shop, our plans are to make a bay available for one of our fire trucks to provide some fire protection to the town of Woodlands."

He adds all their fire trucks are currently being housed at the fire halls in Warren and Lake Francis.