New Fire Chief

Barry Johnstone (right) is now in the driver’s seat as Provost’s new fire chief after a recent vote was taken by firefighters and approved by town council. Outgoing fire chief Wilf Nett (left) will remain on the fire department serving as fire marshall. Johnstone, who has served 33 years on the brigade says he is planning no changes to the operations that include 25 volunteers. Assistant fire chief is now Neil Whiting. Nett, who has served 49 years with the Provost fire department and will still have plenty of paperwork to deal with. ©Provost News Photo. Print version in May 19 edition of The Provost News. Want to Subscribe to The Provost News? Click here.

M.D. Hiring Two 911 Providers
• Splits Map for Wainwright, Camrose Dispatch Service
The M.D. of Provost No. 52 is engaging two 911 emergency dispatch operations—with one to serve the west and one to serve the east end of the municipality.

The M.D. council met on May 12 to discuss 911 providers, and after voting on the issue again, will now move towards using both Camrose and Wainwright operations because local emergency service providers in some areas wanted a different type of dispatch to use when dealing with emergencies.

The division line has been set at Range Road 60, that runs north and south (see map).

Administrator Iris Larson told The News that council did spend a lot of time to consider the advice made by emergency dispatch operations from Red Deer, Wainwright and Camrose on April 18 in Cadogan who stated that the area should be unified for such a service (See PN April 27).

The Town of Provost also met on May 12 and affirmed that the Provost fire department and ambulance services will be using the Camrose Police Service. The Provost ambulance service has a satellite operation in Czar.

It is uncertain exactly when the new services will be put in place. Larson says it depends on equipment that Telus will provide and also getting towers in place. New Provost fire chief Barry Johnstone meanwhile said on May 13 that he expects the Provost area will be using the Camrose service by early summer. Currently the entire M.D. is being served by East Central 911, based in Wainwright.

Rest of story in May 19 edition of The Provost News.
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