Lack of financial oversight has prompted extreme action from Carbon council to put the Carbon Fire Department (CFD) under operational hold status.
This comes after an announcement was made on Tuesday, January 30 from Kneehill County.
Both the Village of Carbon and council members have refused comment on the matter due to FOIP and other legal issues until now.
Carbon Deputy Mayor Bryan Peever announced on behalf of council via Facebook today (Wednesday) on the issue after much online scrutiny from the community.
“Council has had no oversight of the CFD for a considerable amount of time,” began Peever. “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.”
Peever spoke with residents seeing a consistent pattern in comments on how the current situation has been handled. Financial liability was one of the main factors in councils decision.
“One of the duties of council is to protect the citizens of Carbon from financial liability. Councillors, if they are aware of issues that could impact the Village and don’t act prudently, can also be held personally liable. Not to act would be unacceptable,” said Peever. “The actions and inactions of the CFD placed the Village of Carbon in an extremely precarious position and forced Council to act.”
Peever explained that even though there is no operational budget currently set for the local fire department, they are considered over budget.
“The Village of Carbon has been forced to pay bills that were not authorized and were not included in the fiscal village budget. Requests to stop, and or explain CFD spending, went unanswered,” said Peever.
The CAO reportedly requested access to this information several times. Members of the CFD and council gathered for a meeting on Wednesday, January 24, where council felt the team understood the requests made. Later that evening a post was made online by one of the members misinterpreting the intent of the meeting.
“Contrary to CFD standard operating guidelines, the CFD made internal issues public and undermined the authority of the Village of Carbon council, CAO, staff and the County of Kneehill,” Peever stated.
Carbon’s fire volunteers and Council will begin working towards a resolution this evening.
“It is anticipated that discussion will begin tonight and resolution should be forthcoming,” said Peever.
Carbon Fire Chief Marty Morgan could not be reached for comment.

    The Drumheller Chinook Financial branch hosted a bake sale to raise funds for the Emma Armstrong Memorial Fund on Monday, January 29.
    Hussar, Hanna and Drumheller employees baked and donated the goods resulting in $1218.00 in fundraising money.
    “It went fantastic,” said Patsy Stokalko, branch manager of the Drumheller Chinook Financial branch. “We had awesome bakers from our Hussar and also our Hanna branch as well.”
    Chinook Financial decided on a bake sale as many members are known to have above average baking skills.
    “We’ve had good success with the bake sales before and we felt that it was a great opportunity,” said Stokalko. “We got some great bakers in the Chinook Financial world and it’s just a great way to raise some money for the Emma [Armstrong] Memorial Fund.”
    The tables were stocked full of an assortment of baked goods.
    “We had everything, we had cookies and muffins and cakes and squares, breakfast bars, granola bars, everything was homemade. We got a cake that we’re just selling raffle tickets on right now and it’s a beautiful cake.”
    On January 8, emergency services responded to a serious motor vehicle collision on Highway 561, approximately 3 km’s West of Hussar where a westbound car collided head-on with an eastbound SUV. 16-year-old Emma Armstrong perished in the collision.
    Armstrong was considered a patient and loving person in her short 16 years of life. She grew up in Hussar and was involved in many sports like hockey, curling, figure skating, baseball, badminton, water skiing, surfing, knee boarding and tubing.
    She was a natural born leader with an abundance of patience to accompany her sporty, competitive side.
    “Ben and Terry Armstrong stopped in and we had a chance to give them a hug and it was thoughtful of them to stop by,” said Stokalko. “It’s incredible support for the family for sure so I know that it’s very much appreciated by them all.”
    The family has yet to determine where the funds will be allocated. Donations are accepted at any Chinook Financial branch.
    “We were really pleased to have an opportunity to help in some small way to show support for the family,” said Stokalko.