ND council reiterates Fire Plan report is ‘a guide’

WINCHESTER – Responding to internet-based discussions prior to the November 7 council meeting, North Dundas’ elected officials reiterated that the Fire Plan at council was just a guide.

The Fire Master plan was a third-party review of the North Dundas Fire Service, conducted by Pomax Consulting for the township.

The plan emphasized the need for more thorough data collection for response times and the type of fire calls being responded too.

A controversial part of the plan reviewed the existing stations and sub-stations within the NDFS, and recommended closing the Morewood and South Mountain fire stations, while reviewing calls requiring the Chesterville station for a period of up to two years before deciding to close that station. Equipment from the closed stations would be redistributed to the remaining stations. Much of the data used in the report was based on structure fire calls only.

Prior to the report presentation, several members of council and staff responded to the outcry regarding potential fire station closures.

“The title ‘Master Plan’ may be interpreted by some residents as this is a plan of action that the fire department must undertake and that is not the case,” said Fire Chief Kreg Raistrick. “It is provided as a reference tool to our department as a tool for us to develop our strategies.”

Councillor John Lennox asked what another name for recommendations was? “Ideas,” he responded. “Do we support all the ideas, probably not. Maybe, I don’t know. That’s for the future council to decide.”

Responding to the online comments, Councillor Matthew Uhrig said, “When people actually decided to return to reality and escape the echo chamber of social media, they understood that these are recommendations.”

Uhrig continued, admonishing some residents for their online comments. “I am glad to see that there are enough people here this evening who want to learn more and understand that these are recommendations. Do we take any of them? Maybe. Do we take all of them? Very unlikely.”

Mayor Tony Fraser said the plan is a tool. “It’s a plan, it’s a report, that a third party that someone outside of the organization has completed. It includes many things I found intriguing when you look at the data-driven facts.”

Since you’re here…

… Thanks for reading this article. Local news is important. We hope that you continue to support local news in your community by reading The Leader, online and in print. Please consider subscribing to the print edition of the newspaper. Click here to subscribe today.

Subscribe to Email Alerts

Enter your email address to subscribe to Email Alerts and receive notifications of new posts by email whenever The Leader publishes new content on our website.