Peter McIntyre Tuesday, 10 August 2010 09:57 107.5 KISSFM
Relations between the city of Vernon and the North Okanagan Regional District appear to be going up in smoke. The city is no longer required to provide fire dispatch service to NORD which has opted to go with a service from the Fraser Valley Regional District. Mayor Wayne Lippert says while Vernon legally was removed from providing the service on August 5th, they won't just stop providing it, even though NORD has no transition or payment plan in place. "Just because NORD was not smart enough to think about the contract stuff and the consequences of how they ran their operations, doesn't mean the citizens of the North Okanagan should suffer without fire dispatch service." Council passed a motion to write NORD requesting clarification on the service, particularly on how the service is being provided to the remaining areas, details on the month to month contract, and the status of the requisition and reserve payments to the city.
Meantime, in a move some councillors are calling a knee jerk reaction to the dispatch change, the city will look into pulling out of NORD functions for the fire training centre and jaws of life. Councillor Jack Gilroy says the training centre costs the city $100,000 and year and city firefighters (Vernon and Landing) use it just 16 times a year. "For that kind of money, we can send our people to Calgary to get the training as far as I'm concerned because it isn't worth taxpayers money to keep that kind of facility open. City staff will prepare a report on the costs of that and the jaws of life function. Councillor Patrick Nicol says the city shouldn't make any hasty decisions, saying the training centre has been a valuable resource for fire crews.
1 comment:
Perhaps Councillor Gilroy is not confused, but incapable of logical reasoning.
$100K for 16 training opportunities per year works out to $6,250 per session.
Now, I'm pretty sure more than one firefighter is trained at a time.
Let's assume a dozen firefighters attend each session.
$6,250 divided by 12 is $520 per person.
Good luck paying for travel to Calgary, not to mention housing and food, for less than $520 per person!
Not to mention the idiocy of forcing our firefighters to spend their valuable time traveling back and forth to Alberta when they could be home and able to protect us!
Any person with a calculator and half a brain, can understand how a local Fire Training Centre is a benefit to us all - why, a feather in our cap, even.
Anyone, that is, except Councillor Gilroy.
What are you going to do next, Jack? Sue Richard Rolke and the Morning Star if they say something you don't like? Beat up on Councillor Spiers some more?
They say if you can't stand the heat, Jack, get outta da kitchen!
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