Skead residents pack town hall meeting over possible fire hall closure

Residents in the Greater Sudbury community of Skead continue the fight to save their fire hall.

A town hall meeting was held Thursday night as the city considers consolidating some of its emergency services in a bid to save money.

Skead town hall meeting saw large turnout Thursday night as residents are upset about the possible closure of the local fire hall due to the proposed consolidation of services across the city. April 13/23 (Ian Campbell/CTV Northern Ontario)

Late last year, a review of Greater Sudbury’s 24 fire and paramedic stations concluded that many of them should be consolidated, a move staff said wouldn’t affect service levels or lead to layoffs.

There was a large turnout at the meeting with cars lining up along the highway along both sides of the community centre.

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Inside, residents lined up at computers community volunteers encouraged those in attendance to fill out the city's survey about the issue to make sure their voices were heard.

Computers set up at Skead town hall meeting so residents can provide feedback to the city about the possible closure of the local fire hall. April 13/23 (Ian Campbell/CTV Northern Ontario)

Ward 7 City Councillor Natalie Labbée said she wants to see the Skead fire hall saved.

"There's more and more tourists using the lake, we're in proximity to the airport where there are planes flying overhead all the time and we know already that this station is not on its own if there was an emergency," Labbée said.

"There's low incidents here, but when those incidents happen, we need to be ready."

Joseph Nicholls is the city's chief of fire and paramedic services and general manager of community safety.

"I think we're information sharing right now," Nicholls said.

"We're engaging with the public and we're giving them an opportunity to gather information because many of them don't understand how we're delivering fire services in their community or how they've been getting fire services, so there's an opportunity for them to learn."

Resident Nicole Everest said the community is very much against the closure of the Skead fire hall.

"This is a reflection of the community coming together to make its point to the city of Sudbury that we are very much against the closure and we wanted to see our fire station stay right here in Skead," Everest said.

Cars lined both sides of the road at the community centre in Skead for Thursday night's town hall meeting. April 13/23 (Ian Campbell/CTV Northern Ontario)

There was also a town hall meeting in the community of Coniston Thursday night and next week, there will be another in the community of Beaver Lake, west of Lively along Highway 17.

The information collected from the public meetings will be presented to council in June.