Brent Borg is now officially at the helm of Port Hardy Fire Rescue.
Borg was appointed Fire Chief at the District of Port Hardy’s Nov. 28 council meeting after successfully completing a month long review period.
“We have a young fella here that’s got a brand new job, and it’s a big one,” said Port Hardy Mayor Hank Bood, adding the meeting was council’s “opportunity to congratulate Brent Borg on his new position.”
Borg posed for a photo with Bood and then gave a brief update to council on how the fire department is doing.
“I believe as of Thursday we will have an active roster of 35,” said Borg, confirming he feels “pretty good about that.”
With eight new recruits, “and other people stepping up, it shows we are moving forward in a positive way,” Borg stated. “The new recruits are coming in almost every night for training, and that makes me feel a lot better than I did five months ago when we were looking at only 18 on our roster.”
While Port Hardy Fire Rescue’s roster is booming, Borg said it has created some new problems for the department, “mainly with space in the hall — We don’t have the numbers in hall two yet (Storey’s Beach), so we’ve got this new problem of lack of space and we’re running short on gear now, too.”
“That sounds expensive,” laughed Bood.
“It is a little bit,” Borg replied, who then added over his 20 years of service he has seen roughly 100 members come and go. “If I have three of them (new recruits) here in two years, I’ll be happy — thats the kind of turnover we have.”
Borg also stated he has appointed Gavin Texmo as the new Deputy Chief, Justin Reusch as a captain who will be in charge of training, and Adam Harding to the position of lieutenant.
“We have a full complement of officers now and are looking in good shape,” Borg confirmed, before cautioning while they may have 35 members listed on the roster, it will actually take around two years before the new recruits will be considered true members.
“It takes time, the new recruits are learning, and they will not be of use to us for awhile,” Borg said, adding the group is eager to learn, “and hopefully we get them up to speed quickly.”