PORT HAWKESBURY: In the face of rising operational costs, Strait Area Ground Search and Rescue (SAGSR) is requesting funding from eight local municipalities.
During the regular monthly meeting of council for the Town of Port Hawkesbury on March 6, Tanya McChesney and Tony Sampson of SAGSR requested a contribution of $5,000 from the Town.
“Our attendance has almost tripled for training activities we’re holding every month after our meetings and on the weekends. We have around 30 plus members showing up to attend our general meetings, which is great,” said McChesney.
“With this, there are additional costs moving forward and we’re getting called out for searches. Last year we had seven call-outs in our coverage area and several to back up other areas that we support as well.”
McChesney said SAGSR engages in a variety of educational programs, including a training program for school-aged children on what to do if they get lost in the woods, and a map and compass course. SAGSR also works with the Project Lifesaver Association of Nova Scotia, an organization that uses transmitter units to help track children with autism, and people living with dementia.
McChesney said the group has looked for ways to reduced operating costs. They have installed heat pumps in their new building in Monastery which was purchased three years ago, and volunteers have carried out upgrades to the building on their own time.
“We’ve disconnected some of our electric heat, and we’ve cordoned off an area to put our equipment in. So we only have heat in one room at a certain temperature to keep our equipment ready to go at all times,” said McChesney.
Tony Sampson is the treasurer and search manager for SAGSR. He says it takes approximately $60,000 per year to run the program successfully. The group receives a yearly $3,000 grant from the government to operate.
“The standards have changed over the years and that’s what is causing a lot of the different issues. We just cannot function as we used to,” said Sampson.
Training requirements have increased, and new technology has led to higher equipment costs. In addition, upgrades are required to much of SAGSR’s existing equipment.
“For instance, if we go anywhere near a shoreline, we have to wear a life jacket,” said Sampson. “We’ve got about 15 of them right now, and we need about 25. The ones we have are coming due for an expiration, which means they all have to be replaced.”
Hawkesbury’s Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton said that council will consider the funding request as they move forward with budget deliberations over the coming months.
Sampson hopes to receive funding s from all eight municipalities, but says it is difficult to plan a budget when he does not know how much he will have to work with for the year.
“In 2019, we propose to have a tax levy,” said Sampson. “It would be somewhere in the vicinity of .001 or .002 percent, which would mean that a person with a house valued at $200,000 will pay somewhere around $2 a year, the price of a cup of coffee.”
Although he will continue to seek funding from the provincial and federal government, Sampson says municipal support is crucial.
“We are the same as any fire department. We are emergency service providers,” said Sampson.