By Scott Roblin

Cypress County approves fire services agreement with Medicine Hat

Nov 21, 2017 | 4:48 PM

DUNMORE, AB – It’s been seven months since Cypress County voted to terminate their fire contract with the City of Medicine Hat.

Believing they could provide the same level of service for less cost, the County has been preparing for their crews to take over in 2018.

A mutual aid agreement was requested by the County, but the City refused in favour of a fee for service agreement.

On Tuesday, Cypress County passing a motion to come to terms on a new fire services deal with the City, which will feature a fee per call model.

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It was a close vote, passing 5-4 in favour of the fee per call model instead of a secondary option which would have seen the County pay the City on a per capita basis.

Medicine Hat Fire will charge $5,117.29 for the first three hours of service, with each additional hour costing the County $1,705.

A Dunmore Station Response Zone was also created, which will cover the communities of Dunmore, Veinerville, Desert Blume, and the surrounding areas.

Reeve Richard Oster said it will be up to the County if they dispatch their own crews for emergency calls or call on Medicine Hat firefighters for help.

“The call will come in and our fire chief or deputy chief would respond and say if they can be there, if they feel they’ll be sooner than the City,” said Oster. “But otherwise, the City will be responding and to me it’s just business as usual.”

While this option allows for Medicine Hat coverage anywhere in Cypress County, it provides less certainties in overall cost.

Due to being a per call agreement, the County will estimating how many times they’ll need Medicine Hat’s assistance in emergency situations.

This after the County purchasing the Outlaw Collision building for $1.3 million in June to serve as the new Dunmore Station.

CHAT News also learning on Tuesday there was no budget in place to assess an overall cost of the fire services agreement plan before the previous council purchased the building.

Moving forward, Ward 4 councillor Robin Kurpjuweit said they’ll try to project how much this agreement will cost the County.

“We can certainly budget based on assumptions and then deal with it afterwards,” said Kurpjuweit. “Even if you have to over-budget, if you come in under-budget that’s always a positive thing too. So, [we’ll] get it in place and see how it goes.”

Council also deciding on Tuesday to renew their 911 services agreement with the City of Medicine Hat over the next three years, spending $212,000 to purchase equipment for their fire crews, and spending $325,000 to purchase a new Wildland Emergency Vehicle.

Kurpjuweit added the County has until the end of December to iron out details of the 2018 fire services budget.