No fire hydrants out there. Insurance rates would have remained the same.

"No fire hydrants out there. Insurance rates would have remained the same"

Not so.
If you live within 11 kms. of a firehall, even a VFD, your insurance rates are lower than if you did not live near a firehall.
This has been my experience, anyway.
The people of the Cluculz Lake area who bothered to vote have made a mistake in rejecting the proposal, I think.
metalman.

A (rejected) referendum about spending more taxpayers money? Cluculz Lake? BC? Canada? I don't believe it!

I know people that are now covered by the Beaverly VFD. Their home is 20 minutes from the VFD hall. Their insurance premiums went down because of it, (no hydrants in their area). Now if they have a fire, the VFD will rush out there just in time to watch the remains of their burnt home collapse into the basement. They also have a free garbage transfer station out there. They also get 50 free visits to the city operated dump sites in town that the rest of us have to pay $6 for.

When they expanded the pilot mountian vfd a few years back my tax went up $180 per year and my insurance went down $190. Works for me, I would rather give my money to a good group like the vfd's than to an insurance company..

$148/year increase......and they said no!!!!

That's another 41 cents a day. That's before the insurance rate drop. Yeah, outrageous....that they didn't go for it.

After looking at the voting stats I would say there were two groups. Those that their property isn't worth much so an increase cost for fire protection doesn't seem like much of a benefit. Then the second group that probably do have a nice house and figure $148 dollars is a good investment on keeping their house safe.

Sucks for those that can see that a community would become more valuable because they have a service like a better fire department. It seems those against progress won out this time.

Taxes at cluculz are already high. Maybe the regional district should just give the VFD the money they need. They take 17 million a year out of here and send it to Burns Lake. We dont even have a transfer station anymore. We get our roads plowed in the winter and thats about it!

One would think that after losing 5 homes(that through the efforts of the CLFD prevented it from potencially being the whole community) that everyone would jump at the chance to expanded the fire services.These people give numerous days freely to keep you safe and only ask for your support in return.There are two ways to support that effort....by volunteering time or money.Which part of the solution are you? After all, who do you think answers the 911 calls you place?Don't they deserve to be safe when coming to your aid???

Insurance only drops if your fire dept is CERTIFIED, THIS TAKES A MIN. OF 15 CERTIFIED FIRE FIGHTERS!
The main reason most folks voted against this is because there are not 15 volunteers to certify. The fire department has been struggling for the past few years to keep the membership up.
Cluculz Lake population is made up of either summer holidayers, pensioners or residents that have to travel great distances for their employment.There are very few young families in the area
Unlike Beaverly, Vanderhoof or Pineview, if they are fortunate enought to have an employer that will let them leave work to respond to a fire, their response distance is too long.
The residents of Cluculz Lake were not notified of the big plans until it was posted in the newspaper five weeks prior to the vote. If we are going to pay for it, it would have been wise of the CLVFD to at least have a public meeting at the community hall before they involved the Regional district to inform the residents of the needs. Many residents feel this was pushed through without a good business plan. Property on the south side of the Lake has not even been sought out. Where will it be? How do they know there is land availble? What is the cost of the land? You don't ask taxpayers to just fork up the money for a $355,000.00 loan and not show us where you are spending it.The plan is to build an addition to the existing hall and build a satelite hall with VOLUNTEER LABOUR and donations of lumber!! And another thing, why was this referendum planned for when our population is at it's lowest? The snow birds have gone and the summer cabin residents have all left.
If this issue is readdressed in 6 months, I hope the community is involved more, this may even help them to recrute more members.

I guess the residents of cluculz lake will have to decide one question only, do they want a fire department or not?

Thanks for the overview cluculzjogger.

Not all had a chanse to vote ,as there are many land owners and residents are seasonal
We need a voter's list and people names on it. There were others who went to vote "yes" but faced with a lot of hssel,
some who lived there over 20 years and owned property had to show 2 pieces of ID
and sign a paper.
The wardens who were conducting; were nasty; to say the least.
How many others were turned away ,Or just gave up in dispare?

I question when was the last time cluculzjogger looked at the volunteer roster cause the last count we have is 15 firefighters. Please get the facts before inflaming people!!!!!!!

As one of the people who runs towards the fire, thank you to Gea and people like you for your support.
Cluculzjogger is simply repeating the same rhetoric that has been going around the lake since the public meeting. Many of these questions have been asked and addressed. Yes there is a business plan, if you had an interest in it, you could have and should have asked to see it... and yes some people did. This plan has been in the works for 4 years, and it was specifically addressed at the Fire Departments general meeting last year (before it went to the Regional District), in fact, at that meeting a vote was held to bring it to the Regional District.

There are currently 15 volunteers, and it is reasonable to believe that new equipment, a new hall and proper training would encourage more volunteers to show up. If you are fit enough for jogging, your fit enough to volunteer - come on out, we'd love to have you!

The reason why people should have voted for this is because it will make the lake SAFER - not because it will save you money! This proposal included expanding services to include: first response, we live 30 minutes from the nearest hospital - if we are LUCKY the ambulance can get there in 15-20 minutes. The fire department has already completed the training to respond to your medical emergency, but you've just told us that you'd rather we didn't come!

As for the volunteers to build the hall, the people (including tradespeople) that we need to do this, have already committed to it when and if we can ever get the money together to purchase the supplies.

I'm proud of the executive for trying to make the fire department better and safer... I worry that the negative comments from people like cluculzjogger will tear the firedepartment apart and leave us completely unprotected. Maybe it wasn't done perfectly, but at least they were committed to trying to get something done.