Media Releases

Fire and Police Department – 2024-2025 Capital Budget

March 28, 2024

Every year before the end of March, Town of Amherst staff presents Council with the proposed Water and General Capital Operating Budgets. This is how spending is planned across every department for each fiscal year, allowing for the continued maintenance of resources, upgrading of critical infrastructure, and delivering the services that citizens depend on.

The 2024-2025 Water and General Capital Budgets were approved by Council on March 25, totaling just over $4.9 million. The Amherst Fire Department will receive $76,000 in funding, and the Amherst Police Department will receive $317,000.

At the Fire Department, equipment is carefully monitored and tracked because many items have an operational expiry date. Instead of replacing all expired equipment at once, purchases are spaced out to help the process remain manageable.

Wildland coveralls are set to be replaced, at a cost of $20,000 for 25 pairs. Although the old coveralls will soon be out of date, they will be kept and worn by firefighters when they’re doing work around the station. As many as nine sets of structural firefighting bunker gear will also be replaced at a cost of $22,000, which is the required equipment to perform fire suppression activities during various types of emergency situations. 

Another piece of structural firefighting equipment is the department’s ventilation fans. Their old units are run on gasoline engines and they help force smoke and flammable gases out of the structure, allowing members to more effectively fight the blaze. The three new exhaust fans will be powered by rechargeable battery, which will make them quieter and eliminate the production of engine exhaust. These new fans will cost $22,000.

Improvements in recent years to the fire station’s apparatus floor saw a protective coating applied to the floor surface. In order to properly clean this new floor, a surplus floor scrubbing machine was obtained from another Town facility. However, that machine is coming to the end of its functional life; a new floor scrubber is budgeted for the department at a cost of $12,000.

The Police Department also carefully monitors equipment for scheduled replacement. Capital Budget expenses for APD this fiscal year have all been recommended by the Amherst Board of Police Commissioners, and include the replacement of radio equipment, dispatch equipment, and associated software, at a total cost of $127,000. These upgrades will help ensure the force’s essential communications tools best serve staff and policing operations, and that the tools remain functional and reliable.

A new patrol vehicle will be purchased at a cost of $75,000. This price also factors in costs to remove equipment from the old vehicle and re-install it in the new one. Marked patrol vehicles are scheduled to be replaced every three to four years, to ensure the department’s fleet is able to meet the demands of 24/7 policing.

Body worn cameras have been approved, at a cost of $50,000 for 10 cameras and the station-based hub to which footage will be downloaded. Such camera systems are now used by most police agencies in Canada and the United States, and are used to capture police interactions with the public and to collect video evidence at crime scenes or during police related occurrences.

Another piece of equipment now used by many emergency services providers is specialized drones. Approval has been granted to purchase an all-weather drone at a cost of $65,000, which will be shared between the Amherst Police Department and Amherst Fire Department. This new technology can be used by both agencies in critical incidents, fires, scene security, EMO incidents, search and rescue operations, and more. The drone will have the capacity to use InfraRed scanners to locate individuals via body heat, broadcast via loudspeaker, and deposit small items in hard-to-reach locations.

Due to the Town’s positive financial situation, the strategic investments outlined for Police, Fire, and all other departments in the 2024-2025 Water and Capital Budgets can be made without impacting the municipal tax rate and without borrowing funds.