City Pushing For Secondary Farm Field Entrances To Receive 911 ...
KAWARTHA LAKES-The City of Kawartha Lakes could soon join Farm 911, an initiative to improve emergency response at vacant farm field entrances in Kawartha Lakes.
The City says it has offered municipal 911 addressing for secondary field entrances since amalgamation but there has not been general awareness or good uptake of it.
The creation of the Farm 911 project and the province-wide promotion that surrounds it has led to much broader awareness of the need for 911 signing on secondary field entrances according to City staff. This helps direct first responders closer to the appropriate location of farm emergencies when they are not nearby the main farm entrance but are closer to a secondary field entrance at another location on the farm. Many farm properties do not have any buildings on them and therefore would not have a municipal 911 sign. Others have a main entrance with a 911 number where their ‘homestead area’ with farm buildings and a residence is located, but they may also have field entrances further down the road or on a sideroad or at the back of the lot which would not have a 911 number assigned.
The initiative was born out of a tragic series of events in 2014 which led to The Emily Project.
The Emily Project began as a result of a tragic farm accident that took the life of Emily Trudeau in Northumberland County in 2014. First responders were delayed in reaching the scene due to difficulties identifying where the incident occurred on the farm’s property. The Emily Project took root and eventually turned into a province-wide campaign led by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and several local county federations in East-Central Ontario. The mission of the project is to improve emergency service response in rural communities by ensuring landowners can request a civic address from their municipality for entrances to their vacant farm fields.
The Kawartha Lakes Agricultural Development Advisory Committee recommended to Council that Kawartha Lakes officially join the Farm 911: The Emily Project. Council sitting as Committee of the Whole passed the motion which will now come to council for full approval.
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