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GROW OP TOOLS MAY FIT NEED
by Marshall Jones
13 May 2005
Kelowna Capital News
The North Westside Fire Department is trying to get its hands on some
marijuana growing equipment.
No, fire chief Wayne Carson isn't planning on setting up a hydroponic grow
operation in the firehall bays, he wants a shot at getting some of the
large electrical power generators police sometimes find.
"The thought of getting an emergency back up generator has always been
there," Carson says. "We want to be able to power the fire hall and the
community centre and possibly a pump station if we needed to."
His community, between Westbank and Vernon, has had its share of near
natural disasters with forest fires in 1992, 1998 and a near miss in 2003.
His biggest fear is having to cut off power to the community including his
pump stations.
Then he and Emergency Social Services coordinator Jim Edgson heard about
police raiding a grow op and seizing several generators worth $40,000 to
$50,000.
"They were barging in diesel for these things," he recalls.
Carson and Edgson are now floating around an idea to have those generators
turned over to Emergency Social Services.
The problem, so far, is that assets seized in drug operations are federal
matters while ESS is a provincial concern.
If they want the grow op generators, they are going to have to persuade two
levels of government.
They already have support from both the Central Okanagan and North Okanagan
regional districts and are hoping other communities pick up the call.
"During the 2003 wildfires, PEP was looking for and renting these big
generators because they had to cut electricity to the water pumps," he
said. "And apparently when they auction off the generators they confiscate,
they either go right back to the same people growing pot or industry comes
in and snaps them up because they got the bucks."
He says having access to more generators where required would make
emergency planning a whole lot easier.
 MAP posted-by: Beth
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