CHESTERMERE – Around the same time that the sun came up on the morning of Feb. 19, the Town of Chestermere officially took over control of all fire services in the community.
Local fire services had previously been under the control of Rocky View County, but it was announced on Jan. 4 that the agreement would come to an end. Mayor Patricia Matthews said last month that the move was made so that the Town could move ahead in becoming more sustainable.
From the community’s point of view, the change is seamless, as the fire service boundaries, equipment and even the fire hall itself will not change. However, there were alterations made internally during the transition.
The four captains – Brian Pomerenke, Craig Passmore, Brent Paquette and James Thompson – have stayed on in their same roles, however there were changes to the rest of the crew. There are now only eight full time members, down from 12, with the rest of the team is made up of part time and paid-on-call members.
Of the eight full time members, five individuals that served the community before the change occurred were successful candidates for the available positions.
“We are certainly disappointed that we didn’t have the opportunity to keep all of the firefighters that had served our town so well in the past,” said Mayor Matthews. “If budget had allowed, we certainly would have looked at expanding the department to be able to offer more positions.”
Matthews said that they went through a rigorous hiring process, and had “fantastic people come forward”, and that she is happy with the team they have selected to serve the community.
“We have some really fantastically qualified people, they are the cream of the crop,” she said.
Captain Brent Paquette said that although the number of full time members has decreased, the quality of service will not be affected, as more training was done with all members to accommodate the change.
“The Town has been very clear that they are going to work on getting us back up to where we were in the past in terms of how many members we have, within reason and within their budgets,” he said.
Paquette said that although it was a big change with a lot of work involved, he and the rest of the members are looking forward to being able to serve the community as the Chestermere Fire Department.
“We are very proud to have the Chestermere crest going on the uniform, it gives us a real sense of community,” he said. “Before, we were a contracted agency and there were little things that we may not have been able to do.
“We’re not longer thinking regionally as we did with Rocky View, so things are going to be way more community based than what we have been in the past.
“We hope to have our faces in the community a lot so that people will know us by name.”
He said that getting out in the community during events, visiting schools and forming stronger relationships with the Town, the RCMP and the Peace Officers are all things that will be important to them in the future.
Paquette stressed that the local department will maintain a positive working relationship with Rocky View, and that they will still help one another out when they can.
Perhaps the biggest visual change that the community will notice is the new logo that will be on all the trucks and uniforms. Paquette explained that the four captains sat down to design a logo with Sign Craft Digital of Calgary, and worked hard to incorporate some town history into its design.
“We wanted to bring back some heritage and some of the past into it, that’s why we have “professional, proud and proficient” on the logo, which was a Chestermere motto back when it was Chestermere Fire and Rescue,” he said. “We wanted to keep it neat and clean and incorporate the new town logo into it as well.
“We think we found a great balance and we’re all extremely happy with it, and we think it’s something that residents will appreciate as well.”
Matthews said, “They have put in a lot of work to create (the logo) as their own, and I’m really proud of them for hunkering down and getting everything done.
“I think the community will be really excited to see it, and hopefully they will be excited about having their own crew and own fire hall in the community.
“I know that the people who are hired are really excited about being able to offer fire service within Chestermere, and for many of them they will be serving the community they call home.”
