The Village of Coleville, RM of Oakdale, and everyone in the surrounding west central area should be impressed with the recent huge donation from Baytex Energy to the local fire department. Members from the Calgary based company were in the community on Tuesday to introduce a large tri-axle water trailer into the Coleville Fire Department’s fleet, and members of Coleville’s admin team along with surrounding residents watched in excitement.

Baytex Health and Safety Advisor for the region Jim Zalesak approached West Central Online about the gesture, and shared a bit more about how and why the company was able to do it.

“Baytex is always looking for different donations or ways they can help a community and what not,” said Zalesak.

He explained how the energy company being tied to a trucking company allows them the opportunity to do what they did for Coleville, in steaming out former oil trailers not suitable for hauling crude anymore, to be used for transporting water.

This isn’t the first time they have done this exact donation, helping out a nearby fire department in Maidstone a few years back. Zalesak explained why the Coleville/Kerrobert area was the next target.

“We just thought it would be a great idea because we have so many assets in this area. We’ve got light oil, heavy oil, and our thermal plant all right close in that Kerrobert/Coleville area.”

Not only was the initiative towards Baytex and Coleville’s strong relationship a major reason for the project, it is something that could potentially help everyone in the immediate area as well in an emergency.

“(The fire department) responds to so many things whether they are trucking accidents, farm fires, house fires, wild fires; it benefits everybody. Even some of our operators are volunteer firemen in Kindersley and Kerrobert and all over the place, so it helps out the community and the people too right.”

Zalesak mentioned how much they work together with the RM office to coordinate efforts on the roads, and this gesture along with the great relationship between the two is all a result of what he calls “doing good business”.