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| Gibraltar Room |
Present from the City of WL: City Councillors Sue Zacharias and Danica Hughes
Media - Welcome to Williams Lake and WL Tribune
Public - 300+ during majority of meeting
Area 'F' Director Joan Sorley welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the Agenda for the meeting which included a technical presentation on the history of rural fringe fire protection and options before residents' with a referendum vote scheduled for November 24th, 2012 and a Open Forum to provide feedback to CRD Directors' present
CRD Administrator Janis Bell explained the history of rural fringe fire protection dating back to the '60s before Regional Districts were established in BC in 1968 and the options moving forward before the residents' were as follows:
Option 1a - Continue service with City of WL Fire Department, as per proposed agreement from the City of Williams Lake
Cost - $130 per $100,000 of assessed value for all properties within Rural Fringe Services Areas (Phase 1 and 2) and those covered by the existing provincial contract (Mile 168 Rd, Esler, Mountview, Fox Mountain)
Option 1b - Split areas between expanded fire service to certain residents' from Wildwood/150 Mile Volunteer FDs with remainder to be serviced by WL Fire Department:
Cost - $140 per $100,000 of assessed value. Covered areas as per Option 1a
Option 2 - Form own "Rural Fire Protection Function"
Cost - $100 per $100,000 of assessed value
Option 3 - No Fire Protection as of Dec 31st, 2012
The CRD also pointed out that similar agreements (Fire protection between CRD Rural Fringe areas & City of Quesnel and District of Wells) resulted in costs of roughly $68 per $100,000 and currently residents' in Williams Lake pay $74 per $100,000 in assessed value for fire protection, recognizing that the WL Council can distribute costs to minimize the impact of fire department costs on residents' where the CRD does not have that ability for its' residents'
An question/answer period there ensued. Questions raised included:
* Service levels of WL Fire Department vs 150 Mile and Wildwood Volunteer Fire Departments
* Impacts on insurance rates of no fire protection vs the options as proposed
* In 2009, how come a petition for Rural Fire Protection (Phase 2) failed but then the CRD went ahead with a referendum anyway?
* How long does a referendum decision last?
* How long can a fire protection service contract last?
The CRD also announced that they need to hear from residents (online response forms were available at the meeting tonight but would be available at http://www.cariboord.bc.ca on Thursday or on the CRD's Facebook page - found here) by Friday, Sept 21st so the referendum question(s) can be formed and decided on so CRD Staff can prepare the necessary bylaws for the Nov 24th vote at the CRD Board's October 4th meeting
For myself - I was dumbfounded that neither the City of Williams Lake Adminstrator Brian Carruthers or the City's Fire Chief Randy Isfeld were not at tonight's meeting as lots of CRD Rural Fringe residents' had plenty of questions that the CRD representatives could not answer as they weren't qualified to do so but either Mr. Carruthers or Mr Isfeld could have answered those questions from rural residents' and made a picture of the November vote much more clearer for those in attendance. There is lots riding what my fellow neighbours in the Regional District decide on fire protection and what impact that may have on Williams Lake taxpayers'. For instance - what if the CRD decides to go without fire protection or worse, the CRD residents' decide to go it alone?
The new WL Fire Hall was built, in part, to service an expanded area including into the CRD Rural Fringe area. Without cost sharing between City and the CRD Rural Fringe areas - how much will City of WL residents' have to dig into their wallets to fund the 100% debt servicing for the City's new fire hall on their own without the CRD contributing?
Note - WL Fire Chief Randy Isfeld attended a similar meeting in 2009 in WL City Council Chambers and made himself available to answer similar questions from CRD Rural Fringe residents' in discussing the CRD Rural Fire Protection (Phase 2) program
This was, in my opinion, a big mistake on the City's part and I feel that the City should have made either Mr. Carruthers or Mr. Isfeld available to answer any/all questions from CRD Rural Fringe residents' at tonight's meeting so that had every piece of information available to them prior to the Nov 24th vote. If Mr. Carruthers' or Mr. Isfeld schedules were too busy to permit them to attend, then making WL City Councillor SPS Rathor available, at the minimum, should have occurred as Mr. Rathor is acutely aware of the history on this topic and certainly would have been able to answer any/all questions relating to this topic, again so CRD residents' would have a full picture going into the November referendum vote
Finally - a big kudos to CRD Area 'F' Director Joan Sorley for the way that she handled moderating tonight's meeting. Well done, Joan!! :)
If you wish to contact your Area D, E or F Director prior to Fri Sept 21st on this topic:
Alternate Area D Director (Bill Carruthers) - Phone 392-392-6763 or via email bcarruthers@caribouroads.com or Area 'D' Director Deb Bischoff at 989-1515 or via email at dbischoff@cariboord.bc.ca
Area E - Director Byron Kemp at 392-5037 or bkemp@cariboord.bc.ca
Area F - Director Joan Sorley at 243-2261 or jsorley@cariboord.bc.ca
8 comments:
Were Carruthers and Isfeld officially invited, was any City rep invited? It was a CRD meeting and contingent upon the CRD to invite them. The CRD SHOULD have ensured they were going to be there. If they were not officially invited it was a HUGE, HUGE mistake by the CRD not the City.
I'd be very interested to know the answer to this.
Don't point fingers until you know the facts.
It's a CRD meeting plain and simple.
My point exactly, but Mr. Forseth is expressing dismay and is "dumbfounded" that Carruthers and Isfeld weren't there.
It was a CRD meeting and therefore contingent on the CRD to invite them, or an official rep from the City who could speak knowledgably on behalf of the City.
Was this done? Did the CRD officially specifically invite a City rep to speak to any questions? If not, simply saying the City was "aware" of the meeting is no excuse, nor is "assuming" they will be there to answer questions.
Steve: not sure if the first draft posted it did not say that my post was received. Please post only 1.
It may have been a CRD function but in my view it just goes to show the poor communication between the city and CRD.
This issue can have a big impact on both the city and CRD taxpayers and therefore both the CRD and the city should have had representatives there regardless of who was "officially" invited. It is time governments started working together for the greater good of all taxpayers.
Anonymous above has obviously never worked in, or around, government to understand process. For the City to "invite" itself to this CRD event could be considered a slap in the face to the CRD, a kind of invasion of privacy.
The CRD may have wanted to have a discussion without the City there. They may have had valid reasons for doing so, maybe not.
You are 100% correct in the fact the communication with the City for this meeting was very poor. Someone should have been there and there's plenty of blame to go around for why not.
Jim: You are correct I do not work work with government to fully understand the "process"
The way it looks to me, process is just another word for huge ego and in my opinion governments need to get the chip of their shoulders and work together for the greater good.
Amen to that!!
I'm still very interested to know if Steve has asked the question of whether an official invite was made to the City.
Offical, as in, someone from the CRD picked up the phone or wrote an e-mail saying "Can the City please have someone there to answer questions."
Jim:
No, I didn't...
Perhaps, you missed it but at the top of this blog, it says "My view of..."
Again - if you don't like what I write, feel free not to read it
But I will continue to write as I see fit...
Have a great weekend! :)
Steve
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