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The best laid plans . . .
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Came across a news item yesterday on the website of Mix 97 radio in Quinte West, Ont. Stirling-Rawdon – a lovely community in Hastings County, north of Belleville, Ont. – is moving ahead with plans to build a new police/fire department.
I visited Stirling-Rawdon a couple of weeks ago with Randy Vilneff, the training officer for nearby Marmora & Lake, and Stirling-Rawdon Chief Gene Thompson. The present Stirling-Rawdon fire hall is a former car dealership that’s been modified and while functional, lacks some of the basic necessities.
Stirling-Rawdon council awarded the construction tender to Peak Engineering of Brighton, Ont., which produced the lowest of four bids, at $2.4 million. Infrastructure money from senior levels of government will cover two-thirds of the cost. Remarkably, the new building is supposed to be ready by Christmas – can’t imagine that happening in a larger municipality.
March 25, 2010
By
Laura King
–
The
CAFC, in Ottawa this week
to lobby MPs and cabinet ministers, has once again made a plea for sprinklers
in all new residential buildings. According to today’s Calgary Herald, CAFC president Bruce Burrell said the association believes Ottawa should offer incentive money to entice
highrise and high-occupancy residential buildings to be retrofitted with
sprinklers. The chiefs are also calling for tax relief for volunteer
firefighters.
–
Lastly for today, a BBC story
about public education and prevention gone awry. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service
is replacing 5,000 smoke alarms that it installed in homes as part of its fire
prevention program. Batteries in the alarms were supposed to last 10 years but
have gone into low-battery mode after just five years and are beeping continuously,
driving residents mad. You can read more here .
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