Town Council/Fire Service

To Comment on this article Click Here

According to Saugeen Shores Fire Chief, Phil Eagleson, wage costs for volunteer fire services is call driven and also based on weekly training requirements.

"There is a pressure to train at higher standards," he explained recently at the Town Council preliminary budget meeting, "and Saugeen Shores maintains those standards."

In 2010, Saugeen Shores also provided support at the G8 conference. which resulted in a one-time revenue stream of more than $36,600.  "We actually a small surplus of $3,700 which will be carried over to the 2011 budget," he added.

The overall department budget in 2010 was over $580,000 and, for 2011, the initial draft budget is slightly over $550,000. 

"We have actually reduced our energy costs by almost 50 per cent," Eagleson pointed out.  "We implemented many energy saving features with things like weather stripping throughout the stations, energy saving lights, etc."

He also explained that the Department is budgeting for revenues in areas such as false alarm call recoveries at $3,000, fire inspection and other additional smaller revenues that he expects to add up to more than $10,000. 

As with other departments, the largest chunk of expenditures is attributed to salaries, benefits, training and fire equipment related maintenance. 

 

Survey Participate in our latest Saugeen Times survey

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Sunday, February 20, 2011