Despite facing some initial opposition, the Rossdale Fire Station reopened in Edmonton’s river valley on Saturday.

“Against all the costs and benefits and tradeoffs, council determined that this was the right move to reactivate this fire station,” Mayor Don Iveson said at the hall’s grand opening.

Station 21 was closed in 1997 because of budgetary constraints.

Edmonton City Council approved its reopening in 2014, largely because of the location’s access to the North Saskatchewan River, which will further enable river rescue operations.

“That’s something we weren't able to do in a timely fashion, when crews would have to drive from elsewhere and then deploy boats from here,” Iveson said.

Natalie Bunting of the Rossdale Community League was one of the residents who opposed the station’s reopening.

In 2017, the league argued its concerns in the Court of Appeal of Alberta, but was dismissed.

“We don’t even have very wide streets in most instances,” Bunting told CTV News. “So there’s that, increased activity, noise.”

Those at the station hope the community comes around.

“I truly believe that six months, a year and beyond, the Rossdale community is going to embrace us the way that the other 29 communities embraced their fire station,” Chief Ken Block said.

Some neighbours already have, due to how the fire hall will fit in the community. Only one truck will operate out of Rossdale, and is expected to handle between 600 and 1,000 of EFRS’ 53,000 calls each year. A green space has also been built in front of the station, offering a bit of a buffer to the rest of the community.

“Adding something centrally here actually allows all the rest of the ring around the city to focus more on their work. There's a cascading benefit,” Iveson said.

Station 21 was originally built in 1949. The one-storey, nearly 20,000 square-foot facility was extensively renovated; only the four exterior walls remain from the first building.

Council decided to renovate rather than rebuild because the first option was priced at half of the second at $7.5 million. The project was primarily funded through the provincial government’s Municipal Sustainability Initiative.

With files from Regan Hasegawa