For the past 18 months, your Council has been working with Legacy Regional Protective Services and the RM of Wilton to provide better Fire Protective Services for the Town of Marshall.
Today, we have signed a historic 10 year agreement that gives Marshall new equipment and training to fight fires, with the full back-up support to us when needed. This is something we could not financially provide for as a stand-alone Fire Department. Additionally, it also give us access to an EMO (Emergency Measures) Coordinator. As a Council, we will be working to have a full emergency plan ready to go in 2018/19. This is something that is required by the Province, that we have been unable to do alone.
Through Legacy, if there were to be a large emergency, such as a Town evacuation, such as could be cause by a major train derailment, we have the support and assistance needed. This allows your Council to sleep a little better at night, knowing we are not alone, if a major emergency were ever to come our way.
The Fire Hall was financed with Synergy (Marshall Branch) at the time it was built. We are not quite halfway through paying for it. The Building and Lot was appraised and has a current value of $151,000. After careful consideration, Council, because of the loan, maintenance, heat, power and other costs, decided to accept the sale of the Building and Lot at appraised value. This would make us debt free with regards to Fire Protection. Legacy will look after maintenance, power, heat, insurance, etc. in the future. A savings of about $7,500 per year. We will use the extra cash to support other Marshall infrastructure.
Our cost will be the Legacy Annual Fee which is tied to Marshall's assessment (the entire value of the Town of Marshall), that is reported to the Province annually. This cost is very predictable, and will be about $25,000 per year for: good fire-fighting equipment, EMO Services, complete back-up for Marshall, whenever needed, and also gives us a seat on the Legacy Board.
Council considers that this type of fee is quite manageable, and is much better than the current circumstances.