Mountain View County council has approved the purchase of a replacement fire command vehicle for the Carstairs fire department. The move came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The county’s contribution (50 per cent) to the new vehicle will be $20,545, to be funded from the general fire reserve.
“The Carstairs fire department command vehicle was involved in a motor vehicle collision while responding to a call on March 11, 2019 on Highway 2,” administration said in a briefing note to council.
“The Town of Carstairs/Carstairs Fire Department requested quotes for the replacement of the command from two vendors. The chassis has been purchased from Carstairs Ford Sales Ltd. And completed by Commercial Emergency Equipment Company.”
The Carstairs command vehicle is scheduled for replacement in 2023 with the proposed total replacement cost of $79,000, on the current 20-year capital fire apparatus replacement plan, council heard.
Meanwhile, council also approved the allocation of $17,499 from the Carstairs fire department 2019 fire call revenue account to the county’s general fire reserve.
“Twenty-five per cent of revenue generated from calls for service will be allocated to the operating budget annually,” administration said. “The remaining 75 per cent of revenue generated from calls for service will be split 50-50 and returned to each respective municipality.”
In the first six months of 2019, a total of $46,666 was generated by fire calls.
Meanwhile, council has approved changes to the municipality’s health funding policy. The move also came during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
“On August 14 council requested further amendments to policy No. 5001 Health Funding to prioritize operation funding requests over those of capital funding requests, and changes to the procedure to note that capital funding requests would require a minimum contribution from the applicant of 25 per cent of the total projected costs,” administration said.
The changes include the removal of the following clause in the policy: “Health funding may not be awarded for projects/programs that are eligible for existing funding from Alberta Health Services” and replaced with “Requests for operational funding under this policy shall be prioritized higher than requests for funding for capital items.”
The purpose of the policy is to “distribute funding for health initiatives which support the residents of Mountain View County.”
An addition to the procedure accompanying the policy reads: “Applications for capital funding shall demonstrate that a minimum of 25 per cent of the total cost of the capital purchase have been raised prior to council considering the application.”
The procedure states, in part, that, “funding is generally intended for initiatives that do not have access to funding from Alberta Health Services, but may be granted funding if determined appropriate in council’s discretion.
“The approved funding may be used for health professional attraction/retention, health foundation initiatives, other health-care related initiatives approved by council.”
