The Town of Minto has agreed to purchase a generator to keep the power on at the Harriston ambulance station during outages.
Council agreed at the July 22 meeting to spend $30,000 for the purchase and installation of a generator at the Robertson Street facility, which the town rents to the City of Guelph, which provides land ambulance services throughout Wellington County.
“As noted by Minto residents, there appear to be more power interruptions which of course affect the operations of the ambulance service,” stated public works director Brian Hansen in a written report to council.
“It was the opinion of all parties that a fixed generator hard-wired to operate automatically when hydro service is interrupted is the best solution considering that staff is frequently out on calls or covering other geographic areas,” the report states.
The generator would be owned by the Town of Minto and jointly used by the EMS and Minto staff.
Hansen noted the city is willing to increase its monthly fee by $200 per month from $1,800 to $2,000 for the remainder of the agreement which expires Dec. 31, 2019.
The city also indicated it would like to have a section of the driveway paved at a cost of $6,600. However, council did not approve the request.
“Are we going to get better ambulance service because that section is paved?” asked deputy mayor Terry Fisk.
CAO Bill White said staff was not recommending the paving be done.
The generator purchase will be included in the town’s 2015 draft budget for emergency management.
