Town partners with Salvation Army Corps to create warming centre

MARYSTOWN — An agreement between the Town of Marystown and the Salvation Army Faith and Hope Corp will see the common room in the citadel in Creston used as a warming centre in the event of a prolonged power outage or other local emergency situation.

"We struck a partnership with the Salvation Army Corp in Creston," Mayor Sam Synard said following a council meeting. "So, long story short, we are going to support them financially to build some infrastructure, generators and so forth, and they are going to support us by providing other necessitates such as food, volunteers, water, blankets, cots, in the event of a major power outage."

Over the years council has explored other facilities that could be used as a warming centre in the event of a major blackout, but Synard said none were suitable.

"We looked at the fire hall," he said, "but the fire hall is not really suitable because it's a building that's used for completely different purposes. The town hall is not really suitable either because in the event of (another event like) hurricane Igor the town hall becomes the command centre for the whole region.

"We needed an independent footprint, and the Salvation Army has a wonderful reputation reaching out to people and helping people in times of need."

Synard said it is not known at this point what the capital cost of the project will be.

"We're going to buy a largescale generator that can run the whole building up there."