News of the Day

The first FD training session of the year was held yesterday. Captain Murray Lambert gave a short but informative presentation on Critical Incident Stress on how members of the fire department can become victims of this due to the types of situations that emergency workers face. The department has several members trained as CISM counsellors and you are encouraged to use them if you find yourself in this situation. More information is available on the OH&S bulletin board.
Councillor Dumont, Director of Finance Sue Lin Tarnowski and two representatives of Epcor (Terri Moore and Tami Whetmore) led an informative discussion on the proposed 21 year franchise agreement being proposed for the operation of the Sooke sewer system. Some good questions were raised and I think everyone is now better informed on what the options are. It was even suggested that some people may be interested in a tour of the plant to see how the operation works. If this is something you would like to do, let me know and we will make the arrangements.
Finally a discussion on the goals for the fire department in 2011 was presented. This included apparatus and fire station plans, staffing issues, attendance standards, fitness standards and more. The annual Performance Test will be returning sometime this spring for all active members. The use of the gym was discussed. It appears more people are interested in joining the gym in Sooke than investing anything in the one we have here, therefore there will be no upgrades, repairs or maintenance of this facility other than what is currently being done by the users. A reminder that those interested in working at the fire station as relief workers when career staff are away, should have FF Level 2 qualifications. In some cases, we will also require that the relief person be pump qualified. Those with FF 1 qualifications will only be slotted in if no Level 2 personnel are available. (this may encourage some of you to complete your training)
The snow removal equipment is now operational on the new DOS Engineering vehicles. All we need now is some snow. This should improve safety and operations around the fire stations as will no longer have to wait for a private contractor to fit us into their schedule as we will be able to do the clearing as neccessary.