Port Moody firefighters are demanding the city's mayor and council reverse their decision to explore other alternatives for replacing the city's No. 1 fire hall, and are calling on residents to lobby the city to immediately begin building the new hall at the corner of Murray Street and Ioco Road as previously planned.
In a letter written on behalf of the Port Moody Fire Fighters Association, union president Rob Suzukovich said that the department was "shocked by council's decision to ignore the democratically determined wishes of Port Moody citizens" by not going ahead with their mandate to borrow up to $16 million to replace the No. 1 fire hall following the April 16 public referendum approving the loan.
Citing safety concerns and overcrowding at the current No. 1 hall at Murray Street and Ioco Road, Suzukovich said that the city is aware of the current hall's failure to meet building safety codes, adding "Fire fighters face enough risks in the course of our duties without having to worry about being injured or killed by our own station falling down on top of us."
The ire of Port Moody firefighters was raised last week when city council scrapped its plans to borrow $16 million from the province to build a new No. 1 fire hall on the site of the current one.
Port Moody councillors voted not to go ahead with the loan when only 9.2% of Port Moody electors voted in the referendum, a margin that councillors decided was too slim to be representative of the population.
Mayor Joe Trasolini has since chosen a special fire hall committee to develop new plans to build a smaller, cheaper hall at a different location in Port Moody, a project he said will be completed by the original project deadline of mid-2013.
"We're going to end up with an inferior hall at an inferior location. That's my worry," Suzukovich told The Tri-City News Friday. "I don't know of any other location that I think will be suitable."
Suzukovich also expressed at what he said was council's subversion of the democratic process by ignoring the results of the referendum.
"They've turned their backs on the voters and that's wrong," he said. "Our biggest issue is that council has had 10 years to deal with this issue and now that they've spent all the money on the plans and referendum, they want to have another look?"
Suzukovich said he hoped the new hall could be built in accordance with the original timeline, regardless of location or size, but said he had reservations about whether that was possible now.
