At its Tuesday meeting, the regional district board adopted bylaws to establish a fire protection service at Mount Washington and to authorize a $415,000 loan to construct a firefighting facility at the resort community.
A referendum held Saturday passed overwhelmingly in favour of the service.
Area C (Puntledge-Black Creek) director Edwin Grieve commended the efforts of a steering committee that worked for about a year-and-a-half to make this happen.
“And also thank the residents of Mount Washington for having the vision to look down the road and see that as the mountain grows, this is going to be an integral part of helping the mountain grow into something that will be even greater than it is today,” Grieve said. “Because without a fire department, you really can’t have a community, and especially the economic development that is needed to turn that mountain into a 12-month-a-year resort that I can see it becoming. So thanks all around.”
Last year in February, a late night fire destroyed three cabins on Mount Washington.
They were left to burn due to the lack of fire protection.
At the referendum, 102 voters approved the service and 19 said no.
The total number of eligible voters was 300, many of whom are not residents of the mountain (i.e. out-of-area property owners).
Voter turnout was about 40 per cent.