Ste. Agathe is in the midst of recruiting volunteer firefighters in preparation for the planned construction of a new fire hall in the community.
“The RM of Ritchot has it in their plans to proceed with this, the first step,” says Claude Lemoine, President of Ste. Agathe’s Community Development Inc., a newly formed committee that works to progress initiatives benefitting the town. “One of the major hurtles we need to jump over, if you will, is recruitment.”
Two recruitment meetings have been held so far, on January 21 and February 25. Lemoine guesses there were between 30 and 40 people who attended the January meeting, though it is unclear how many applications have been received so far.
“To a certain degree, we’ve been pressuring the RM about this,” says Lemoine. “We’ll make sure to inform people of the meetings, but the construction is going to be by the RM, the reviewing of application is up to the fire chief, and all the capital costs and so forth are all on the RM.”
Ritchot’s fire chief is Scott Weir, who works out of St. Adolphe.
“The RM of Ritchot has a fire hall in St. Adolphe and Île-des-Chênes, and they serve the whole RM,” Lemoine explains. When there’s a fire in Ste. Agathe, help usually comes from St. Adolphe. “If there’s a larger fire, then Niverville would come out.”
