We're pretty sure that Meaford council will receive criticism from citizens for deciding to go ahead with the construction of a new Fire Hall this year.
We can hear the comments now. "If they have a deficit and need a tax hike, why are they building a Fire Hall?" Or, "they can use that money to pay for something else and save us a big tax hike."
We understand comments like that, but we respectfully point out that they're wrong.
The proposal to build a new Fire Hall in 2008 is not going to have a positive or negative effect on taxes in the 2008 budget. The capital funding plan for the new Fire Hall does not include a dime of financing from the 2008 tax levy.
Fire Chief Steve Nickels and Financial Consultant David Creech have smartly put together a capital proposal to get a new Hall built without affecting the tax levy in 2008.
The new Fire Hall will be paid for with two specific reserve funds for the Fire Department, surplus money left over from the now defunct Fire Board, development charges and deferred revenue found on the books from previous budget years.
That is a sound financial plan that allows the municipality to complete a major project without affecting the tax rates of the community.
In addition to the good financial plan for the project, a new Fire Hall is also desperately needed in this community.
A few years ago, the Fire Department was forced to vacate the old Fire Hall for the renovation project at Meaford Hall. Since that time our Fire Department has been quartered in what is essentially a storage garage for trucks.
The temporary home of the Fire Department is completely inadequate as a proper Fire Hall. It is a garage. It has no training facilities for our firefighters. It has no office facilities. The specialized equipment worn by our firefighters is stored out in the open hung on a wall.
The garage has no shower facilities for our firefighters. The temperature in the building during the winter is barely adequate.
As a community, we should be embarrassed that the people we depend on to save lives in the event of an emergency are being housed in a facility like this.
We encourage all town citizens to congratulate council for showing good leadership for approving this facility and the financial details to pay for it. This is good, sound and responsible leadership from our council. It's what we all expect.
In addition, everybody should give big thank you to all of our firefighters. We depend on them to be there when we need them and they rarely let us down. In a few months our Fire Department will have a proper home and we can all be proud of how the issue was handled.
