The Village of Radium Hot Springs has unanimously accepted the decision to renew a fire service agreement with the Regional District of the East Kootenay (RDEK).

“This would be simply our renewal for fire services within the RDEK, so Brownsville area, Kootenay National Park and areas to the south of here,” said Mark Read, Village of Radium Hot Springs chief administrative officer, at the regular council meeting on Wednesday, December 16th.

Read had reviewed the fire services agreement with both Radium fire chief Dave Dixon as well as the RDEK. He said all three parties involved do not see a need to make changes to the agreement at the present time.

“It’s really just a simple renewal of a status quo bylaw at this time,” he concluded about the five-year plan.

The RDEK undertook an assessment to see if the boundaries being served in the agreement were ideal. Read reported that Radium opted to keep Brownsville in their area of operation to help keep the taxes at a reasonable rate.

The Schickedanz West ranch lands were not included in the agreement because they did not meet the requirements of the fire agreement.

“Our decision was that we would not accept those areas until some changes were made and Schickedanz never moved forward with those changes,” explained Read.

Mayor Clara Reinhardt agreed and stated if changes needed to made at a later point, revisiting the agreement was always a valid option for everybody involved.

“The fire departments themselves know what’s reasonable and practical,” said Reinhardt.