With CESB well underway, Creston Mayor reestablishing fire fund

October 18, 2021

By Mayor Ron Toyota

Mayor Ron Toyota

The highly anticipated construction of the new Creston Emergency Services Building (CESB) has begun! In just a few short weeks, the foundation, external doors, walls and roof of the CESB, located at 1505 Cook Street next to Pealow's Your Independent Grocer have been completed, and it's anticipated that the facility will be fully functional by spring 2022.

I am so excited that this project is well underway for some of the first responders of our community who provide the Creston Valley with such an invaluable service!

The Town of Creston has automatic aid agreements in place with the communities of Erickson, Lakeview-Arrowcreek and the Creston Flats, and contract service agreements with the communities of Canyon/Lister, Wynndel and West Creston.

At any given time, we have up to 50 firefighters and almost 20 ambulance service personnel in t he Creston Valley providing first responder services.

Now that we can see a clear path to the finish line for the CESB, I would like to reestablish a proposal that I first made to the community in 2017; my "Mayor's Fire Fund" to raise monies to support our volunteer firefighters by completing the Creston Valley Regional Fire Training Facility on Davis Drive next to Pine Profiles, which provides a location for our firefighters to engage in physical training activities for major incidents such as structure fires, vehicle fires, auto extrication, propane fires and more.

The "fire training grounds," as they are referred to by the firefighters, are invaluable in that they allow our volunteers space and time to train to respond to these potentially life-threatening situations.

My simple math is that if 100 donations of $1,000 each were received, or if 500 donations of $200 were received, or any such combination, this would raise $100,000 to go towards the completion of these important facilities for all our Creston Valley first responders.

Any donations over $20 will receive a tax receipt that you can claim personally.

Since 2019, I have personally donated $1,000 to the new fire hall and $1,000 to our training center, and I commit to donating more in 2021 and 2022.

If you are interested in providing donations to the Mayor's Fire Fund, please contact me by phone, (250) 428-2214, extension 227, email, ron.toyota@creston.ca, or stop in and see me at town hall. I am generally in the officer Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I look forward to speaking with you!

This December, it will be 13 years since I was first elected to be your mayor. I am truly honoured to have had the opportunity to serve the Town of Creston, and one of the ways I have chosen to "give back" is to donate a portion of the pay that I receive for the mayor's stipend to local organizations in the Creston Valley.

This is a small gesture that I can make to support our volunteers who donate their time and effort to this community we call home.