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Sweet tastes of summer
A young Okotoks girl enjoys a slice of watermelon after a busy day at Sandy McNabb park in Kananaskis Country as part of the Eagle Day Camp program.
- photo by Darlene Casten
Father and four- year-old son killed
By
Intern reporter
A four-year-old boy and his 45-year-old father died Sunday afternoon after their pickup collided with a semi-tanker truck on Highway 552X west of Okotoks.
The man's 35-year-old wife and two other children, all passengers in the pickup, were taken to Foothills Hospital with minor injuries. Okotoks RCMP said the driver of the tanker was uninjured but 'shaken up.'
Okotoks RCMP were called to the scene at about 2:20 pm after the tanker, carrying milk, and the southbound pickup side-swiped each other driver-side to driver-side. All occupants of the pickup were buckled in, with the four-year-old seated in a car seat. Both vehicles sustained serious damages.
The accident occurred near 250th Ave. W, about 500 metres south of the Calgary Gun Club.
The family had recently moved to Okotoks from High River. Names are being withheld at the request of the surviving members of the family.
Okotoks RCMP said the accident is still under investigation. Alcohol is not considered a factor in the crash.
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Okotoks to withdraw from FREMS
By
Editor
Okotoks will establish it own ambulance service by 2005 ending its association with Foothills Regional Emergency Services (FREMS).
At its regular meeting on Monday, Okotoks town council agreed to proceed with the integration of its fire department and EMS.
It is intended Okotoks will withdraw from FREMS effective Jan. 1, 2005.
'This gives us 18 months of transition period,' said Okotoks fire chief Paul Kaiser. 'We should have a smooth competent transition.'
Kaiser initially presented the idea to council in February, 1999. In 2002, council approved an expansion to the Okotoks Fire Hall for full-time service and personnel accommodation with construction expected to start this year to facilitate the transition to Okotoks' own emergency services.
'I believe this is the right thing to do at this time,' said Kaiser. 'Now is the time we can start moving to a more diverse emergency service.'
Okotoks town council unanimously supported proceeding with the program.
FREMS executive director Darren Sandbeck was informed of the move last week, but he said he has yet to discuss the issue with the FREMS commission.
However, Sandbeck said the commission knew of the impending withdrawal of Okotoks for some time.
'This is not a surprise, we knew this was coming,' said Sandbeck after Monday's council meeting. 'I can't really give any further comments because the board has not had a chance to look at it.'
The Okotoks plan is to integrate its fire and EMS personnel where all members are trained in both disciplines.
Kaiser said much of the training has already begun where fire staff and volunteers have been trained as emergency medical response personnel.
By integrating the staff Kaiser said it would eliminate parallel fire and EMS staff reducing staff requirements by about six.
Once the integration plan is in place Okotoks emergency services will have 17 full-time members working in three platoons of five staff and either the fire chief or deputy fire chief.
The staff will be augmented by the volunteers (there are currently approximately 30 volunteer fire fighters for Okotoks).
Although council supported the integrated system there were some concerns regarding level of service and funding.
Councillors Ed Sands and Linda Boychuk were concerned whether or not the integrated service would mean a decline in service. If the ambulance and fire responded to a call, would there be sufficient staff in place to respond to a second call?
Kaiser admitted that Okotoks will soon need two fully staffed ambulance crews in place. However, he said he feels comfortable the integrated service will be able to provide adequate service to the community.
One of the keys will be establishing mutual aid agreements with FREMS, the MD of Foothills and other neighboring municipalities so, in times of need, emergency services are always available.
A second concern regarded funding.
Councillor Laurie Hodson, a member of the FREMS Commission, said he did not want Okotoks to suffer the same deficit issues which saddled FREMS.
'FREMS was seriously underfunded from start up,' explained Hodson. 'It was not the fault of the commission, but will it happen again? Are we realistic with the costs and can we do this as cost effectively as it is being done on a regional basis (FREMS).'
Kaiser said Monday's announcement was simply to proceed with the next step of the project, formal costs and budgets have yet to be determined.
He said he did not know if integrating services will save the town money or not.
However, he said he was confident the town was making the right step forward.
'There are a lot of unknowns yet,' said Kaiser. 'We have looked at (the costs) and we've looked at all the (funding) avenues. Right now, I think we can do it.'
Council and Kaiser will begin negotiations with FREMS for the transition from FREMS.
