Council approves commission of fire station location study, and beginning of fire master plan

Craig Bakay | Nov 01, 2018

Central Frontenac Council approved a recommendation by Manager of Emergency Services/Fire Chief Greg Robinson to amend the Fire Bylaw as recommended in the Fire & Rescue Phase Two Operational and Organizational Review at its regular meeting evening in Sharbot Lake.

Specifically, Robinson asked Council to have a fire station location study done; develop a master plan for Council’s approval; include gaps/risks identified in the phase two operational and organizational review that have not been mitigated to be addressed in that master plan; fully support the implementation of changes resulting from the operational and organizational review; and keep Council informed on the implementation of changes resulting from the phase two operational and organizational review.

Robinson said that there was $25,000 in the budget to be used for the station location study and master plan.

Coun. John Purdon said that the master plan should also have prevention and protection in addition to the word fire in the title.

But Purdon also questioned the need for a fire station location study.

“We have three fairly new stations and I can’t see wanting to relocate those,” Purdon said. “How big a study do we need for our four stations and two substations?”

“We did our own study and there was a possibility to combine Arden and Mountain Grove,” Robinson said. “But we don’t have the data we need.”

Coun. Brent Cameron went even further, questioning the scope of the phase two operational and organizational review, a rather large document presented to Council at the May 22 regular Council meeting that contained 142 “gaps” the fire chief said needed addressing.

“I’m not trying to be difficult,” Cameron said. “But the province has rescinded some of the requirements, gaps, that study identified.

“I feel like we’ve been given a large number of recommendations (142) and been told to take it or leave it.

“I’m not comfortable with this and would like to see a less ambitious document — one that gives the retention of personnel higher priority.”

Robinson responded that the master plan isn’t yet completed and “only five recommendations are being asked for tonight.”

While that might be technically true, one of the recommendations is that Council give its full support to the “implementation of required changes resulting from the phase two operational and organizational review.”

Another recommendation is those changes be included in the fire master plan.

Dep. Mayor Tom Dewey suggested they wait to pass the resolution until the new Council but Mayor Frances Smith said she was fine with the resolution as is.

“There are seven of us who have been through it,” she said.

Winter Maintenance contracts

Council approved acting Public Works Manager Dave Armstrong’s recommendation that they accept contractors’ bids for winter road maintenance in Area 1 and Area 2 and do the snow removal, sanding/salting in house for Area 3 and Area 4.

Armstrong said in his report that based on historical invoices for 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 winter seasons, the Township would be spending about $287,500 annually for Areas 1 and 2 to be serviced leaving a surplus of about $137,500 from the budgeted amount for equipment rental, additional equipment maintenance and repair, and future considerations for equipment purchasing and/or rental.

Essentially, the Township will be paying $2,723.22 for each snow/sleet/freezing rain event in Area 1 and $1,751.59 in Area 2. He said he hasn’t had enough experience yet to estimate what it will cost the Township to do Areas 3 and 4 itself.

Henderson Road Culvert

Council awarded the Henderson Road Culvert tender to Crains’ Construction Ltd. for $191,110 not including HST. The budget for the job was $200,000.

Acting Public Works Manager David Armstrong said he’d work with the contractor to get the work done as soon as possible and minimize traffic disruption. He estimated there would be “about four days” of traffic disruption as it is a rather large culvert.