Huntsville Fire Chief Gary Monahan gave Huntsville councillors a rundown on how the separation between the fire departments for the Town of Huntsville and the Township of Lake of Bays is going.
Monahan was before Huntsville Council on Monday, January 22 and said the dispatch services and software for the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Fire Department have been separated. “We’re two different departments. Operationally, as some of you may have seen, we’re still working together during the mutual aid agreement,” he said, adding that Lake of Bays assisted Huntsville recently during a fire in downtown Huntsville.
“But as far as the operations, there’s no change, we’re just working through a couple of automatic aid agreements in the Hidden Valley area, in the Brunel [area], so I don’t have much more on the operational side… but things are moving smooth and we’re getting ready for July 1,” he told councillors, referring to the official separation date.
Prompted by a question from Deputy Mayor Dan Armour, Monahan confirmed that the mutual aid agreement between the municipalities is not a billed service.
Under the shared Fire Department Administration Services Agreement, the Township of Lake of Bays funds an estimated $2.32 million toward its share of shared fire operations and administrative services.
Last summer, the Township of Lake of Bays gave the Town of Huntsville notice that it would be withdrawing from its Fire Department Administration Service Agreement with Huntsville, and in November, the municipality hired its own fire chief.
Huntsville CAO Denise Corry told council on Monday that Lake of Bays has been great to work with. “I know both the fire chiefs have been working together really, really well. The transitioning date is July the first, and we’ll roll some extra information out a bit later with respect to rebranding and how that affects the Town of Huntsville,” she told councillors. “I’m sure one thing that’s a question in everybody’s mind is the financial piece. With the transition, they are going independent July 1st, but there’s a full commitment to honour the contract that’s in place,” she said, adding that there are some final details being looked at regarding equipment, “but Lake of Bays has been very good at committing to the contract which they entered into, which takes us to the end of the year.”
Corry said staff will be back with a more detailed report.
In the interim, Monahan told councillors as of July 1, it’ll be the Huntsville Fire Department. Lake of Bays has started referring to its fire services as the Lake of Bays Fire Rescue.
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