The newly-formed Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Services Governance Committee has set its priorities.
The committee met for the first time this week, made up of council and staff from each municipality and the Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Department, with a different municipality taking the lead every year.
Tarmo Uukkivi, Huntsville’s Director of Operations and Protective Services, says the first thing on the docket is updating the service agreement between the two municipalities, which dates back to the late 2000s.
“One of the items we spoke about was the complexity of the funding formula and looking to make that easier to understand for the public,” says Uukkivi. “So that they understand exactly the services they’re getting.” He says that means making sure that all residents are getting what they paid for with their tax dollars.
According to Uukkivi, the next priority is looking at the service level commitment from both municipalities, with the future goal of merging the separate budgets into a single operational budget for the whole fire department. “Instead of dealing with only two fire halls or four fire halls separately, depending on which municipality you’re talking about, you’re now dealing with all six fire halls,” says Uukkivi.
At the end of the day, Uukkivi says the committee’s goal is to streamline things for better fire services overall, with recommendation from the Fire Services Master Plan completed last year.
“Transparency is the biggest key with this committee,” says Uukkivi. “We’re going to see the numbers, we’re going to have regular updates on Fire Services activities to both councils and the public. And then really fine-tuning the services that [they’re] currently delivering to both municipalities.”
