Ongoing tensions between the Village of Carbon and Carbon Fire Department (CFD) has finally come to a resolution after three days on operational hold.
Kneehill County announced this morning that the CFD has returned to operational status, relieving Drumheller, Linden and Acme departments from extra vigilance duties.
Both parties were in attendance Wednesday evening to resolve any issues that have come about.
“Everybody put their lives on hold last night and the entire fire department showed up, and the entire council,” said Carbon Deputy Mayor Bryan Peever. “We sat down and we thrashed out what we needed to do to go forward, and the big thing is communication. We got to start talking.”
He explained that the meeting was extremely successful.
“There are things that we needed to get straightened around and everybody agreed,” said Peever. “[They are an] amazing group of people and they were very professional about it the way we went.”
Carbon firefighter Jody Kranzler has since been named the new Fire Chief for the department as a result of the meeting. Two others have been named deputy fire chiefs as well.
“We’re charging ahead and I’m seeing a lot of very positive things come out of this and it is time to heal and get us back on track,” said Peever. “It was felt that it was a leadership issue.”
Peever spoke on behalf of council by posting on Facebook yesterday afternoon, regarding the operational hold.
“Council has had no oversight of the CFD for a considerable amount of time,” Peever wrote yesterday. “Repeated requests to provide information has been ignored. Information requested, and never provided includes qualifications, training, equipment status, call out reports, and reports as required by Bylaw, Standard Operating Guidelines (SOG) and the Kneehill County Fire Agreement.”
Former Carbon Fire Chief Marty Morgan, facilitator of the ‘Citizens of Carbon, Alberta!’ Facebook page has posted regarding the situation noting that any negativity towards the fire department online will be eradicated.
The council is looking forward to the times ahead.
“I think that it’s time for a fresh start,” said Peever. “Carbon is an awesome little town, a lot of outstanding people in this town and it’s time to start looking forward, not backwards. We are looking forward to the future.”
