A project to install sprinklers inside part of the Lacombe Senior Citizens’ Lodge is going to tender, almost three years after the province pledged $80 million to improve fire and safety systems in government-owned or supported seniors lodges across Alberta.

“We haven’t moved on it as quickly, as we’re still hopeful that we get funding to replace the lodge, starting with the older part. But the newer part still has useful life,” said Mike Leathwood, CEO of the Bethany Group, a non-profit contracted by the Lacombe Foundation to act as the lodge administration.

Leathwood said 35 units in a section of the lodge, built in the mid-1980s, will see the upgrades.

The tender closes in January and he said the goal is to finish work by the spring. He adds residents will not be displaced during installation.

Many seniors living units were built before 1990, when fire sprinklers became mandatory under fire and building safety codes.

The original section of the lodge was built in the 1960s, then expanded and renovated to code in 1998, Leathwood said.