BCFEMSA Meeting

Location: Cleveland Community Center Date: 2026-05-07

Time: 7:04 pm

Attendance:

·        Representatives from each department were accounted for: Allgood, Bangor (proxy) Blount Rescue Squad, Brooksville, Cleveland, Holly Springs, Locust Fork, Mt. High, Murphree Valley, Nectar (proxy), Oneonta, Pine Mountain, Remlap, Ricetown, Rosa (proxy), Royal, Snead, Straight Mountain (proxy), Susan Moore and West Blount

·        Members not present: Blountsville, Dallas-Selfville, Summit

·        Associate Members present: EMA, 911, 911 Board, AAC, Ameripro, BREMSS, Coroner, Forestry, Jr. Fire Camp (proxy), Special Ops, State Fire Marshall, and Training

·        Members not present: Alabama Fire College, DA, Law Enforcement, Air Transport Providers, Red Cross, and VOAD

Previous Meeting Minutes (March 5, 2026)

Motion to Accept: Scott Payne Second: Paul Gilbert

All approved

Financial Report

Motion to Accept: Chris Hill Second: Scott Payne

All approved

Committee Reports:

Chairman

·        Truck Inventory and Financial Reports are due. Collected 9, Due 13

EMA

·        Fuelman on track

·        Homeland Security Grant 3 stations applied last year

·        Homeland Security Grant Training Date/Location/Time will be sent out by EMA

911

·        14 dispatchers, 2 in training currently 100% staffed

911 Board

·        P25 issues with outages by Southern Link

AAC

·        Data this month shows Ameripro 85% on scene in 20 minutes

·        Continued 0 (zero) status problems, can’t rely on data due to adding a truck

·        Questions about data being “pumped up” to make things look good

·        2 Chiefs had very different response times with several of their calls

·        ACC’s meeting is Wednesday, May 13th at 6:30 pm, Chiefs encouraged to attend and voice your opinions

·        Issues with Ameripro, text and email ACC – need to know what’s really going on

Ameripro

·        Sunday begins 24/72 shifts with 12 people, waiting on 2 medics from orientation

·        2 EMT’s on workers compensation and 1 on maternity leave

·        Give them one week and things should be on track

Training/Special Ops

·        Live Fire training will be set up at West Blount at the end of June, Ricetown and Mt. High are included in the training opportunity

·        Fire College Pipeline Training Class – possibility begin September

BREMSS

·        Equipment List on website, equipment behind building

·        Drug/Fluid/Med Waste/Controlled Substance plans must be submitted with Agency EMSP Application

Forestry

·        Grant checks will be distributed tonight

State Fire Marshall

·        Problems with multiple families living in one place, be aware of this problem

·        Make sure your department goes over By-Laws, SOP’s, Finances and spending

·        Book for treasurer and station to have on hand AL Dept of Examiners of Public Accounts: Volunteer Fire Dept Financial and Compliance Guidelines

Coroner

·        Thanked everyone for all their help at scenes

·        Note a new blue pill M20 is in our area, stronger than Fentanyl, Narcan does not work

Jr. Fire Camp

·        Text Vanessa Hill what days you can volunteer and t-shirt size

·        Need female volunteers to help with females at camp

·        160 – runs stations, non 160 helpers

·        70 kids enrolled and 50 on the waiting list

·        September “Smoke on the Water” huge fund raiser at Guntersville for Fire Camp

·        New website

Old Business:

Bill 269 passed

New Business:

911/Ameripro

#1. Motion requesting Ameripro to share AVL data with Blount County 911 First: John Reed

Second: Chris Hill

#2. Motion requesting Ameripro to clean up 0 (zero) status data in 90 days First: John Reed

Second: Chris Hill

·        Define 0 (zero) status, no ambulance in service, what if ambulance comes into service in 15 minutes, is it still 0 status

·        Dispatcher at 911 does not know location of Ameripro trucks, only Amanda Jackson knows location

·        911 does not keep up with 0 (zero) status other than initial announcement

·        Only keep up with data through CAD

·        0 (zero) status noted when Ameripro calls and says 0 status

·        Breech of contract with “shoot time” is more than 90 to 120 seconds

·        Amanda Jackson stated she told her personnel to quit saying “time of call”

·        ACC stated when UAB Blount gets a dedicated truck current contract will have to be amended

911 Board

#1. Motion that 911 Board find a solution to expand P25 system

#2. Motion to establish a committee of Fire Chiefs that do not have service with P25 meet with 911 Board

First: Tyler Seehusen Second: Scott Payne

#3. Motion to amend above motion to state 3 departments who have P25 service (Oneonta, West Blount and Cleveland) and 3 departments without P25 service (Rosa, Ricetown and Mt. High) come up with a solution

First: Clay Jones Second: Scott Payne

Rescue Squad:

·        Expanding the Dive Team. Interested in having a 10-12 member team

·        Members interested in training or questions contact Bruce.

·        A 2 year contact will be put in place.

·        Open Water rescue will be free to all fire and police this time only

·        Chris Hill stated he had new dive equipment at Station 92 if anyone needs to purchase at a discounted price