RFS South West Slopes Zone representatives, volunteers and mayors from Young, Harden, Cootamundra and Boorowa have spent the last 12 months discussing plans for the new $4.1 million Fire Control Centre.

Funding commitments from all four shires has been secured and  the search for a new location has been narrowed down to Young, near the Young Cemetery, or Harden, next to the racecourse on the Burley Griffin Way.

A consultant has also been engaged to investigate the sites and prepare a funding model to present to the councils.

But there’s one Galong resident who is against the proposal, labelling it preposterous, unnecessary and “beyond belief”.

Ross Flanery, a former Harden Shire councillor for 34 years - 10 of those as president - and 50 year member of the Galong Rural Fire Brigade wrote a letter to the Harden Express conveying his disapproval. This letter was then forwarded onto The Young Witness, Presently no need for new RFS “palace”.

Mr Flanery claims the “bureaucrats of the South West Rural Fire Service [were] clearly demonstrating their only interests are their own” by building a new headquarters.

He said there shouldn’t be any discussion about a proposal for a “palace” while there were discussions about amalgamating shires to reduce any unnecessary duplication.

Mr Flanery also says there is no need for another building, especially a multi-million dollar one.

He compares the proposal to a time when one man ran the RFS of Harden, Young and Boorowa, “very efficiently”.

He also questioned the efficiency of the service and the jobs of South West Slopes RFS employees - who he claimed “operated at the expense of ratepayers, as will the new building” - and suggested the service should run similar to that of NSW Fire and Rescue’s few on-call paid firefighters. 

“I have had person after person ring… I have received a very positive reaction from the community,” Mr Flanery said of his letter.

RFS Regional West manager Paul Smith said as far back as 2006 it was determined the current premises in the old Trinity building in Harden was outdated, too small and “grossly inadequate”.

It wasn’t until after the zone experienced a series of major fires - of which the RFS refers to as Section 44s - 12 months ago that the service realised an urgent need for a new and more modern centre.

Mr Smith said the zone conducted a review following the major fires at Geegullalong (Murringo), Watershed and Cobbler Road, revealing the centre wasn’t up to modern standards.

“We established a working party that included the mayors and general managers of the four councils and RFS representatives,” he said.

“The council, senior volunteers and certainly the RFS would disagree [there is no need for another building].”

The new fire control centre would serve as the base for the 50 brigades in the zone.

Mr Smith said the RFS needed to run and coordinate fires in the modern age, adding that their proposal matched the standard of new fire control centres in Orange and Dubbo.

“This is the standard, it’s not something unique… it’s a standard design we want to establish.

“This is a state-of-the-art facility to help us coordinate and run fires, but, more importantly for our volunteers, to have a training facility, meeting room, storage facility, along with modern communication systems.

“There’s a commitment from the government for additional funding over four years for fire control centres and brigade stations... the South West Slopes has never had a purpose-built facility ever,” Mr Smith said.

“We have spent the last 20 years modernising the fleet of tankers, upgrading volunteer equipment, improving training for volunteers, building stations for volunteers. Basically ensuring that the volunteers have the tools to do their jobs. It is now time to add to this modernisation by the building of this facility.

“It’s also part of the local district’s strategic plan.”

Mr Smith also said the time Mr Flanery referred to when there was one person who manned the service was 20 years ago and wasn’t the way the service was run today.

“Back then they were only honourary fire control officers. When we took over the employment of staff in 2001 the local government employed four... we employed another when legislation changed in 2006, regarding the Commissioner’s role in hazard mitigation. That’s only one person in 14 years added,” he said.

“South West Slopes Zone have five permanent staff. We are more professional and our level of equipment, training and facilities are far superior than 20 years ago.”

As for waiting until the local government amalgamations were sorted, Mr Smith said the proposal was “completely separate and independent to what else is happening in local government”. 

Mr Smith added that RFS staff had been conducting hazard reduction burns prior to this year’s fire season, quoting the $50,000 each council was given for hazard reduction.

“Every year at a bush fire management meeting we put forward hazard reduction proposals, there’s a process behind it and we welcome more if the community sees a need,” he said.