Overworked trainers at the city’s firefighter training centre may be getting some relief in the form of a two-year pilot project.

At its Feb. 4 meeting, members of the community services committee voted in favour of hiring two additional trainers at the emergency response training centre in Azilda, bringing the total complement to four.

The two-year pilot project will be funded from the existing firefighters budget, but if successful, officials hope to make it permanent. The centre not only trains professional and volunteer firefighters in Sudbury, but from other communities, as well, which are charged for the service. By adding the additional trainers, officials hope to do more training and boost revenue in the process.

Working with only two trainers has caused burnout among staff, with 10 people hired over the last 10 years to fill the two positions. With weekend training common, especially for part-time firefighters, current staff struggled to get time off, as training demands exceeded available hours. Overtime hours also ballooned.

By boosting the number of trainers to four, fire officials aim to reduce turnover and increase training hours.

The decision by the committee to approve the two trainers must be approved by city council to become official.

New Sudbury trunk sewer needs repair

A critical sewer line in New Sudbury needs about $1.5 million in repairs, the city’s operations committee was told Feb. 4.

The New Sudbury Trunk Sewer is a nine-kilometre stretch of pipe that was built in the 1960s. It increases in diameter from 300 mm in Garson to 1,350 mm as it enters the rock tunnel, which carries all wastewater in the system to the wastewater treatment plant on Kelly Lake Road.

The trunk sewer runs alongside Junction Creek, making it hard to access for repairs. A remote camera inspection revealed most of the tunnel is in good shape, but a section south of Lasalle Boulevard near Barrydowne Arena showed “significant groundwater infiltration,” a staff report concluded.

To fix the problem, water in the affected section has to be diverted so the area can be treated with a liner and cured properly so it doesn’t leak. The money to pay for the work will come from a capital reserve fund for wastewater work.

Parking enforcement to be combined

Enforcing parking rules downtown, currently done by two city departments, could soon be done by one, saving administration and other costs.

As it stands now, the job of ensuring fees are paid at municipal parking lots is handled by the city’s Parking Section, while enforcement at parking meters is handled by the Compliance and Enforcement Section.

Parking meter enforcement is handled by city contractors, while part-time staffers work at municipal lots.

Centralizing the work in the Compliance and Enforcement Section will reduce part-time hours, a staff report said, and the public will be able to go to a single department that handles all parking issues.

While approved by the operations committee, the plan must pass through city council as a whole before taking effect.