BLOUNT COUNTY FIRE & EMS ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MARCH 7, 2013 MEETING
Blountsville VFW
The meeting was called to order by Chairman John Reed. Chief Frye gave the invocation. The following member organizations were represented: Bangor, Blountsville, Brooksville, Cleveland, Dallas-Selfville, Holly Springs, Locust Fork, Mt. High, Murphree Valley, Nectar, Pine Mountain, Remlap, Ricetown, Rosa, Snead, St. Mountain and Summit. EMA, 9·1·1, Forestry, BREMSS, Blount EMS and the Coroner were also represented. 9·1·1 Board Supervisor Neal Brooks and Board Member Bob Sanford were present.
GUESTS –Connie Stinnett and her SouthernLINC partners, Jay Lutenbacher and Curt Weaver, provided the meal and talked about new SouthernLINC systems, equipment and services being introduced. They also provide flexible rates to enhance your communications systems.
Chairman Reed asked for the approval of the minutes of the February meeting. Motion by Chief Netherton, seconded by Chief Frye, and carried by voice vote. The Financial Report was approved by a motion from Chief Glass, seconded by Chief Robertson and carried by voice vote.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
CHAIRMAN – Chairman John Reed notified everyone that the scheduled Chief’s Conference set for Saturday, March 9, was canceled due to lack of participation. There was not enough committed participation to justify the travel by vendors who had agreed to make presentations.
EMA – Director Max Armstrong advised that the Spring 2013 LEPC meeting would be held at the EOC on Wednesday, March 13 at 1030. Fuelman use for the month of February was 96.4% of budget. There will be a Fatality Management Training table top exercise at Rainbow City on Tuesday, March 12. See EMA if you are interested in participating. EMA is still requesting your input if you have any suggestions for the Emergency Operations Plan upgrade.
9·1·1/COMMUNICATIONS – Supervisor Neal Brooks handed out run reports. He also has a pager list for chiefs to look over for approval. The 911 Board is now fully established with the appointment of Dean Gilbert representing the Fire Association and the re-appointment of Ken Campbell back to the Board. Ground breaking for the new 911 Center will be soon. Neal also requested help in notifying him by email if you see cross streets on text messages that don’t match up with reality. Max reminded chiefs that if you need annual run reports to let him know.
TRAINING – Training officer Tim Frye advised that he had sent out the monthly training report by Egroups earlier but highlighted a few opportunities. He is working on details and legalities of conducting the chainsaw safety course. Thirteen (13) students are currently enrolled in the Basic EMT class at Holly Springs.
FIRE PREVENTION – No report.
FORESTRY – Forestry Project Specialist Terry Helms reported that Stations 14-73-75-80-84-92 & 94 had all been approved for the Fall equipment grants. He also stressed the importance of keeping current service records on any Federal & State equipment you have on loan through Forestry in case any auditor wanted to review it. His final advice was to be aware of weather changes and be ready but careful.
SPECIAL OPS – No report.
ST. VINCENTS BLOUNT – No report.
BREMSS – Draft protocols were emailed out recently. The SEMCC meeting will be Tuesday, March 12 with a work session @ 1000 and meeting at 1300. The EMS Coordinators meeting was held 2/28/13 with 59 people attending. A Systems Review class is available through BREMSS to cover presentation to any department on STEMI, Mass Casualty issues and other items. The Blount County Board of Education needs two school shooting drills per year per campus.
Blount EMS – Tammy asks that if you have any questions or concerns to please let her know.
AMED – No report.
LAW ENFORCEMENT – No report.
CORONER – Coroner Mark Vaughn advised about different scenarios that determined the type of response he initiates to scene calls. There are some scenes where he is required by law to attend and he will be on site in those situations. Other scenes under particular situations do not require his presence and he must use his judgment about travel due to budgets and manpower for his office. In these situations, he would appreciate help in gathering information from responders who are on the scene through faxing the run report or other methods. The Coroner office can be reached by fax @ 205-625-4622.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY – No report.
LIFESAVER – No report.
AIR-EVAC – No report.
RED CROSS – No report.
GOOD & WELFARE – No report.
OLD BUSINESS:
§ The operating rules for the EMT Scholarship Program are still being developed and the draft document will be placed on Egroups in about two weeks.
§ All departments were reminded of the deadline for submitting equipment quotes to the Health Care Authority. (NOTE: THE WRONG DATE WAS GIVEN. THE DEADLINE FOR QUOTES WAS MARCH 1. THE HCA WILL STILL ACCEPT YOUR INVOICES UNTIL MAY 31 SO YOU MAY RECEIVE YOUR REIMBURSEMENTS.)
NEW BUSINESS:
§ The AAVFD Conference will be held in Tuscaloosa on August 3 & 4. A list of officer candidates was given and a motion to approve the nominations for AAVFD was accepted from Chief Head with second from Chief Booth and approved by voice vote. A motion to approve Ken Edwards to attend the AAVFD Conference was received from Chief Netherton with a second from Chief Frye and passed by voice vote.
§ The second annual Public Safety Fair will be held at the Oneonta Public Library on Saturday, March 16 from 0930 to 1330 which will include static first responder equipment displays, LifeSaver helicopter, Fox 6 Storm Tracker weather truck and inside displays of information covering personal emergency preparedness information. If you would like to place equipment in the display please see Gail Sheldon at the Library.
§ It was noted that the Blountsville repeater was causing radio interference and traffic disruption for the Brooksville area since narrow-banding. Efforts are being made to identify and correct the problem.
§ Chief Sanford informed the group that he had removed a firefighter, 8420, from his department for a variety of reasons and cautioned others that this person may try to jump neighboring department calls. He is no longer affiliated with Station 84 but may have a personal radio that he is using. Call law enforcement if he tries to work your scene.
§ Straight Mountain Fire will host a spaghetti supper on Saturday, March 9.
§ Brooksville fire will host a fish fry on Saturday, March 16.
§ Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus will sponsor the May meeting at Snead and Servpro will sponsor the June meeting at Rickwood Caverns hosted by Mt High / Ricetown.
The next meeting will be April 4 at the Dalton Moss Lodge at Palisades Park. The meal will be at 6:30 sponsored by Infinity Fire & Water.