A disagreement between Westlock County and the Village of Clyde has left Clyde-area residents with one less fire protection vehicle as of the evening of Dec. 23.
County CAO Peter Kelly sent a letter to the Village Dec. 10 indicating that “due to budgetary constraints, Westlock County will no longer be parking our County fire trucks or storing our equipment at the Clyde Station,” adding the equipment and truck will be removed by Dec. 31.
Reeve Bud Massey told the Westlock News this decision was made in response to a Dec. 3 letter from the village that included a proposed rental agreement.
“We received a letter from the Village of Clyde advising they were going to start charging $3,500 rent for us to store our equipment in their fire hall,” he said. “We replied that if that was the case, we would relocate our equipment to Westlock Rural.”
Massey said on the morning of Dec. 23 that as yet no firm decision had been made, which was why there had been no effort to communicate this possible change to county residents.
He said he didn’t know if the equipment would actually be removed by the date stated in the letter, and said county administration has directed the county’s regional fire chief to discuss the matter with the Clyde department chief.
“I think it’s premature to make a big deal out of it until we find out where those discussions go,” he said.
When asked again about informing or consulting with county residents that evening, moments before the tender left the Clyde Fire Hall, he was non-committal.
“I don’t know if there’s any decision to consult with county residents on at this time,” he said. “You’re going to inform them in your newspaper.”
He added he hoped there would be some “positive conversations” between the county and the village.
On Dec. 22, Clyde mayor Doug Nyal said the village had sent a proposed rental agreement to the county following a November discussion between the village and county councils about some outstanding issues, including building a new fire hall in Clyde.
The village and county have been in discussions for several years about building a new hall in Clyde, which progressed to the point that the village had purchased some private land for the project.
“We had a piece of land that was marginal, but we purchased two additional lots from residents adjacent to the property to make it large enough to house a fire hall of the nature the county wanted to build,” Nyal said.
When the tenders came in they were too high, and the county had other infrastructure issues to address, the project was shelved.
Nyal said the village approached the county about financing the construction of a new hall on its own, but said it wouldn’t have been prudent to go ahead without a rental agreement indicating the county was committed to using the facility.
As for charging rent for the space — something that has not been done for the past couple decades, Nyal said it’s a reasonable asked.
While the county and Clyde fire departments in the village are technically separate departments, they share space, equipment and all personnel.
Nyal said the space-sharing agreement dates back about 25 years, when the village agreed to house the county’s fire protection equipment in the village’s hall in exchange for privileges at the former landfill in Nestow.
In the early 1990s, the Town of Westlock, Westlock County and Village of Clyde entered into the Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission, which meant the village was now paying its own way with respect to waste, but continued to house the county’s equipment with only sporadic payments for portions of utilities in the building.
When the county shelved plans to build a new fire hall in the village, the village opted to pursue the possibility of going it alone, and recouping some of the costs from the county in the form of a rental agreement.
“The county has been in the building provided by the Village of Clyde for more than 20 years, at virtually no measurable compensation back over 20-plus years,” he said.
“We figure we’ve been more than fair, more than accommodating for the county on this issue.”
He said he was concerned that this issue wasn’t discussed further, either between he and Massey or between the two municipalities’ administrations, before the drastic step of moving the county’s equipment out of the village was announced.
“The county never got back to us; there was no phone call from the reeve to myself or from administration to administration,” Nyal said. “We just received a letter from the county saying as of Jan. 1, they would no longer be housing their equipment in the Village of Clyde.”
Massey explained in the morning the decision to pull the equipment out of the Clyde fire hall had been made because of the proposed rent, explaining the county had no intention of paying any rent to the village of Clyde for space in the fire hall.
When asked that evening about whether it was the right choice, he would not say one way or the other.
“It’s just a choice,” he said. “As I said earlier we have a mutual aid agreement with the Village of Clyde and we intend to honour all the terms of that mutual aid agreement.”
Nyal, who was also present at the fire hall as the tender was being removed, said he thought the county had handled the entire thing “very poorly.”
“I’m not going to get into an argument,” Massey replied. “We’re neighbouring municipalities.”
Both Massey and Nyal have said the impact on residents in terms of fire service will be negligible.
Massey said county council had asked administration what impact the change — moving equipment to the Westlock Rural fire hall — would have on county residents in the Clyde area, and he said there would be no impact.
“When there’s a fire, the equipment from Clyde responds to the fire but so does the equipment from Westlock Rural, and generally speaking the two pieces of equipment arrive at the same time,” he said.
“We have been told it will not negatively impact (service).”
The Westlock Rural fire hall is in the county industrial park south of Westlock, approximately 15 kilometres, or about a 10-minute drive at the speed limit.
Members of the Clyde fire department told the Westlock News they felt the move would most certainly have a negative impact on service, and said while during the day Westlock Rural members arrive on a scene roughly the same time as Clyde members about three quarters of the time, it’s a different story at night.
“During the day, maybe, but not at night,” chief James Hoetmer said.
In the village itself, Nyal said the village owns the main pumper that department uses, as well as enough personal protective equipment to ensure the county firefighters will not be in harm’s way due to lack of gear when they respond to calls.
“That was a definite immediate concern I had and that council had,” he said.
Nyal added he doesn’t think the department would even lose any members as a result of the county pulling out.
“Nothing should change with respect to fire protection within the village,” he said.
“I spoke to the firefighters and they’re all still committed to the Village of Clyde, even the ones that live in the county.”
