Ponoka County will no longer provide support to the Town of Ponoka in regards to equipment and services including the use of County facilities for meetings or other Town activities.

The news comes in response to the Town's decision to only cover half of a $76,732.64 invoice given to them by the County to replace missing fire equipment during the transfer of fire response units in April 2016.

County says the expectations were that the trucks would come fully equipped and in a statement released yesterday afternoon, the County described their acts as immature, reckless and totally unacceptable.

Ponoka County Reeve Paul McLauchlin said he's hoping the Town will make things right.

“It’s more of a concept of principle and ensuring that we do what’s best for the community and a deal’s a deal.”

“From a financial standpoint, we’ll hold onto the remaining invoice for as long as we can and hopefully one day we get paid.”

McLauchlin said their relationship has taken a hit, but believes it can still be salvaged.

“This is a blip in the road and these things happen, but our hope is that over the next little while, either through the election or otherwise, we’ll hopefully re-establish a stronger relationship and move forward.”

At Ponoka Town council on Tuesday, CAO Albert Flootman said an investigator, who was hired to look into the matter, deemed covering 50 per cent of the costs was fair because the items had been purchased on a shared basis as they shared budget costs for many years.