The Citizen, 2010-03-25, Page 24PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010.“Our new system isn’t going tojust hit townships with an increasedlevy if we need to replaceequipment,” Black said. “Instead,we’ll have the finances in order to
make those purchases when they
should be, not when the equipment
breaks down.
“Planned purchases, except
buildings, can be forecast in a 20-
year spending cycle,” Black said.
Fire standards had changed, and
neither fire board had taken the
necessary steps to meet the new
standards.
“Blyth Fire department, for
example, was training twice a month
for two hours, giving them a
maximum of 48 hours of training a
year, while [Wingham] was only
meeting once a month, giving them a
maximum of 24 hours a year,” Black
said. “The provincial guidelines
suggest that a department should
have between 80 and 100 hours a
year of training. That needs to
change.”
Black said a shift in the
firefighting paradigm is also causing
the costs to rise.
“Emergency response isn’t our
first job anymore,” Black said.
“Preventing fires is.”
Black explained that, due to new
litigation, municipal fire
departments can be held accountable
for what they do or do not do, both
on-site at emergencies, and during
inspections, and that practices need
to change to reflect that.
Another problem that existed
before the amalgamation between
the two fire boards was
accountability.“I found, when talking to all themunicipalities, that most of the fireboards in the area were independententities,” Black said. “They had theirown finances, often done by hand,
that didn’t exist in any municipal
computer or system, and they didn’t
answer to any municipality.”
Black said that this was
unacceptable, and North Huron, who
currently owns the North Huron Fire
department, is now practicing the
accepted norm.
Black ended his presentation,
showing the new breakdown of
coverage in ACW, using the closest
fire department in all possible
scenarios, and saying that increasing
fire costs are something that ACW
should not consider a problem.
“For many years the
municipalities got a deal on their fire
protection,” he said. “But now it is
time to pay for quality service. We’re
offering complete fire protection
services that will meet, if not exceed
standards... and the benefits that
come from a full-time, dedicated fire
chief.”
ACW councillors had questions
for both Black and Reeve Vincent
regarding their choices, with a focus
on the cost increase.
Coun. Barry Millian of ACW
asked about the dramatic increase in
training, and what kind of dollar
amount is attributed to that, and
Black explained that training
expenditures will increase from
$17,000 for both stations under the
North Huron fire department to
approximately $53,000.
ACW Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek
indicated that the area that NorthHuron is offering to cover isdifferent than what has been coveredin the past, and suggested that achange be made to have Blyth’s firehall only cover the area east of the
Maitland River, and the village of
Auburn.
North Huron’s Blyth fire station
currently covers the ACW portions
of Auburn, a block of land bordered
on the south by Nile Road, the east
by Short Line, and a northern
boundary between Hawkins and
Dungannon roads, and a small
section between St. Augustine Line,
Glen’s Hill Road, and Hawkins
Road.
North Huron would like to see that
area changed to include areas almost
as far south as Londsborough Road,
as far West as Carlow, and as far
north as Glen’s Hill Road. However,
ACW council reiterated that they
would prefer to see Blyth’s
contribution to their coverage
shrink, not grow.
Black responded, saying that he
believes it is important to have the
closest fire department cover the
area.
ACW council requested that North
Huron come back with a revised
contract using the Maitland as the
border, as it would cut more than
half of the area from what North
Huron has proposed.
Coun. Millian questioned why
such large changes needed to be
made among the fire departments.
“We’ve had few complaints about
any of the fire protection in the
area,” he said. “What are the
ratepayers going to see when they
have trouble that [warrants theincrease]?”Black said that new practices andnew equipment will lead to fasterresponse time, bettercommunication, and an overall
better performance at emergencies.
ACW has the option of contracting
the area currently covered by North
Huron’s Blyth Fire Hall to
Lucknow’s fire department. It could
cause an increase in the time it takes
for rescue services to arrive, but
Lucknow’s fire chief Peter Steer said
that they could definitely make it
within the province’s rural standard
of 10 firefighters being on scene
within 17 minutes of a call, 90 per
cent of the time.
Coun. Doug Miller said that he has
a problem with some of the clauses
in the fire coverage contract.
Specifically, Miller contends that
tripling the cost of their fire
coverage should be enough to cover
any special equipment, however,
North Huron’s current contract has a
built-in provision for the delivery of
special equipment to emergency
areas.
“I disagree with the special costs
clause,” Miller said. “If we’re paying
three times the rate for the service, it
should cover all the costs we may
come into.”
Reeve Van Diepenbeek requested
that North Huron bring a revised
budget back that reflects the new
coverage area, and said ACW’s
councillors would consider the
request.
“[We] are going to have to mull
over the information we’ve heard
tonight,” he said. “We’ll get back to
[North Huron] one way or another.”Reeve Van Diepenbeek said that, ifthey do see a dramatic increase infire coverage costs, the effect won’tbe felt by individual rate payers.“It’s really not going to make or
break our budget,” he said. “But it is
a cost that we have to consider.”
North Huron also received word
from Central Huron council during
North Huron’s council meeting on
March 15 stating that, after having
reviewed the proposed fire coverage
areas and cost, they would instead
prefer entering into an Automatic
Aid agreement with North Huron,
which will continue to see the
closest station respond to fires
regardless of municipal boundaries,
but work on different payment
systems.
The Automatic Aid system,
according to North Huron CAO
Gary Long, is a system in which the
closest fire department responds to a
fire, regardless of municipal lines as
well, but, if a fire department, or
station, crosses a municipal line,
they only stay on site for an hour,
until the local department arrives
and takes over.
The cost for an Automatic Aid call
in northern Central Huron would be
$1050 ($350 per truck), but,
according to Long, that doesn’t
really cover costs.
“It would represent a great savings
for Central Huron, but North Huron
still has to pay for equipment and
training for its fire department, and
the amount that would be generated
by Automatic Aid calls wouldn’t
cover it,” he said.
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Fire discussions continue with ACW, NHContinued from page 1