Saint Andrews – The town’s volunteer fire department responded to 17 incidents during October including two motor vehicle accidents, a chimney fire and a fuel spill.
In his monthly report to town council Monday night, Fire Chief Kevin Theriault said one of the topics discussed at the New Brunswick Association of Fire Chiefs directors’ meeting was the implementation of the trunk mobile radio system which will enable fire departments to contact any responding agency in the province such as EMO, the RCMP, Ambulance NB or the fire marshal.
“It looks at this point that there will be no extra cost to the town as the fire department will be seeded two radios from DOTI. Once this system is in place in this area, we may see a change in our dispatch system.
“There is a possibility of the dispatch moving to Saint John. The earliest time frame we have been given is very late in 2017 or mid-2018. After that, if we need to replace our existing system, we may need to look at going fully with the new system but it will be extremely expensive to switch over.
“The NBAFC has asked that Aliant and the province keep a VHF/UHF layer in this system to allow us smaller departments the ability to link with the new system but continue to use the style of equipment that is currently in service.”
Bagged leaves and brush program ending soon.