The Town of Yarmouth has agreed to extend a deadline involving ongoing talks about fire dispatch service.
The town had given rural fire departments, several of which that are also in Shelburne and Digby Counties, a deadline to respond to a funding formula for dispatch service.
A request was tabled at Thursday night’s regular council monthly meeting asking for more time to crunch some numbers.
Council agreed to the request in a unanimous vote.
Mayor Pam Mood says council wanted to give the rural departments the time they needed.
“Forty-days from the 24 of September for them to come together with some numbers with regard to mutual aid and and other pieces and council will make a d decision from there.”
Meanwhile Mood says the town has received two quotes from other dispatch service providers.
She says they followed due diligence.
“We just took a look at the bottom line, the numbers were what we thought. So, basically once we get these numbers, it’ll say it’s too expensive or it’s not.”
It has informed the four Yarmouth dispatchers they will be laid off as the town seeks a better price saying its taxpayers are paying too much of the dispatch cost compared to other municipal units.
But rural fire officials have said that the town has not considered the value of mutual aid in the equation.
(Yarmouth Town council discussing dispatch deadline request Thursday night- CJLS News photo)
