BCFEMSA Meeting

Location: Cleveland Community Center Date: 2026-03-05

Time: 19:00

Attendance:

•       Representatives from each department were accounted for: Bangor, Blount Rescue Squad, Brooksville, Cleveland, Dallas-Selfville, Holly Spring (proxy), Mt. High, Murphree Valley, Nectar, Oneonta, Pine Mountain, Remlap, Royal, Ricetown, Rosa, Snead, Straight Mountain, Summit, and West Blount

•       Members not present: Allgood, Locust Fork, Straight Mountain, and Susan Moore

•        Associate Members present: EMA, 911 Board, 911, AAC, AL Fire College, Ameripro, BREMSS, Forestry, Special Ops, UAB Blount, VOAD

•       Members not present: Training, Jr, Fire Camp, DA, Law Enforcement, State Fire Marshall, Coroner, Air Transport Providers, Red Cross

Guest:

•       Marie Manning, State School Board District 6

•       Williams Fire - service all types of apparatus

•       HomePro - all types of service for fire and water clean up

•       Sunbelt Fire

Previous Meeting Minutes (January)

Motion to Accept: Jon Head Second: John Reed

All approved

Financial Report

Motion to Accept: Steve Pass Second: Jon Head

All approved

Committee Reports:

Chairman

•       Bill 400 and 269. Bill 400 should die and Bill 269 should pass next Tuesday. Shellnut is on board, Standridge not so much but he is on board now that he has received several emails. The Farmers Federation is backing the bill.

EMA

•       Fuelman 56% for the month and 32% annually spent

•       There are landfill checks still available for some departments.

•       Annual dues are due now.

911

•       Chief meeting went well.

•       Roll call meetings with dispatch twice a week. Radio traffic with real time events is better however still a work in progress.

•       Improvement with Ameripro communications.

•       Bylaws state we need 911 training yearly. We need to set up a training maybe at the next meeting.

911 Board

•       Radio communications: Director Walker is exploring combining Leeds Fire with Blount County Fire channel. Chief Jones stated he had done some math and we have a 7% chance Leeds would be on a structure fire the same time with Blount County.

•       Need more attention to call taker, 2 people operating fire channel, no separate CAD system. Currently have 15 dispatchers (13 trained and 3 being trained)

•       Leeds has 2 dedicated channels with 1 dispatcher.

•       Ricetown stated there will be much more traffic and we will have difficulty in getting out again, bending our operations to support Leeds.

•       SOP states to move to tact channel when you have a fire do not go through fire base. Departments must be patient getting out on channels.

•       Go to Fire 2 to communicate with helicopter.

Motion for BCFEMSA to send a letter recommending to combine channels: First: Paul Gilbert

Second: Jon Head All approved

AAC

•       0% status relationship with mild improvements.

•       UAB Blount has a dedicated truck, 12 hour shifts will move to 24n. Serving all hospital, nursing homes.

•       Trucks will be released to run EMS calls this contract is in progress.

•       Calls will go through Ameripro dispatch.

•       UAB Blount does have an ER and this service needs to be utilized instead of taking all patients out of county.

Ameripro

•       They have 4 trucks, shortage on medics as of today they need 4, currently interviewing.

•       Ameripro is offering pay incentives due to staffing issues.

BREMSS

I.   Check web site for your region.

•         HA guidelines in effect March 1. Instructors have updated guidance.

•         Can request to look at training records

•         EMS Challenge.

•       Birmingham hospital census is high and full.

•       March 18 at 11:30 am Dr. Ferguson will provide a Narcan training.

Forestry

•       Blount County office will shut down. Currently being move to Jefferson County.

•       Grants will come out mid month and will be electronic. No more paper applications.

AL Fire College

•       See handout new path to certifications for volunteers

•       Modules 1-4 will be going away as of June 1, 2026.

•       Fire college will send out testing teams for 160 fast track courses.

•       New 8th edition book for FF1 and FF2 (2 different books) Hazmat stand alone class.

•       All instructor classes will change this fall.

VOAD

•       Monthly meetings

•       Serve St. Clair, Jefferson and Blount

•       Next meeting 4/11 at Oneonta Town Annex

New Business:

Lending Library

•       Motion that the Lending Library needs the new 8th edition Essentials of Fire Fighting, Hazmat, FF1 and FF2 books.

Motion to approve purchase of 4 sets of books to complete VFF, if not enough funds use undesignated funds to purchase

First: Tim Frye Jr. Second: Jon Head All approved

Nomination of Shane Hobson as Vice Chair of Board

Motion to approve Shane Hobson as Vice Chair First: Jon Head

Second: Jeff Ivy

Association Email List

•       Suggestion to remove everyone but Chiefs and Associate members from the email list. Association communications is getting spread all over Facebook.

Motion to purge list to only chiefs and associate members only First: John Reed

Second: Jason Bodine All approved