“There is money out there,” said Mayor Robert Kirby during an April 9 interview. “What’s needed is to look at those who need it.”

East Hawkesbury Township has fire halls for the villages of St-Anne-de-Prescott, St-Eugène, and Chute-à-Blondeau. None of them, however, are adequate to the needs of the township.

“The one in St-Anne is an old school house,” Mayor Kirby pointed out. He further explained that the other community fire halls also have shortcomings.

The municipality has applied before without success for senior government funding aid to build new fire halls with room enough for trucks and other equipment. Mayor Kirby noted during a previous interview that small community fire halls did not get priority as an essential need for either provincial or federal infrastructure grants but he hopes that may change.

“Maybe when this (pandemic) is all over,” said Kirby, “they (senior governments) will show some willingness now.”