2019-11-7 Minutes

November 2019 Meeting Minutes

 

Attendance

·              Representatives of each member department: Allgood, Banger, Blount County Rescue Squad, Blountsville, Brooksville, Cleveland, Dallas-Selfville, Holly Springs, Locust Fork, Mt. High, Murphree Valley, Nectar, Oneonta, Pine Mountain, Remlap, Ricetown, Rosa, Royal, Snead, Straight Mountain, Summit, Susan Moore and West Blount.

·              Associate members present: 911/Comms, Alabama Fire College, Blount EMS, Coroner, District Attorney, EMA, Forestry, Special Ops and VOAD.

Chairman’s Remarks

·              Recognition of Guest Present: Dry Tech, Ryan Vidischak

·              Introduction of new Banger Fire Chief: Mitch Dodson effective immediately.

·              Announcement by Doug Smith - Land Field Checks available for pickup at the end of the night’s meeting.

·              Chairman Hill’s request for acceptance and approval of October 2019 Meeting Minutes and Financial Report

Previous Meeting Minutes

Motion to Accept: George Stanton – Brooksville VFD

2nd Motion to Accept : Shannon Hobson – Rosa VFD

2019 October Meeting Minutes were approved with no objections or corrections.

Financial Reports

Motion to Accept: JJ Ivey - West Blount VFD

2nd Motion to Accept : Jeff Baril – Blount County Rescue Squad

2019 October Financial Report was approved with no objections or corrections.

 

2019 Blount County Fire and EMS Association Awards & Recognition

·  Blount County Dispatcher of the Year: Christa Reno(Blount 911), award presented by Neal Brooks, Director Blount County 911

·  Blount County EMT of the Year: Matt Crowe (Oneonta Fire), award presented by Kenny Booth, Chief of Oneonta

·  Blount County Fire Fighter of the Year: Rex Allred (Oneonta Fire), award presented by Jonathan Ledbetter, Chief of Susan Moore

·  Recognition of Service for John Head;  5 Years of Service as Chair of Blount Fire and EMS Association

·  Recognition of Service: Ken Edwards 15 Years of Service as Co-Chair of Blount Fire and EMS Association

 

Committee Reports

Chair’s Report

·  AAC Meeting November 15th at 16:00, Blount County 911

·  Chairman Hill requested John Head remain a member of the AAC Committee; serving as the Blount Count Fire and EMS Association representative.

·  Healthcare Authority Grant is open

·  $1,500.00 available to BLS Departments

·  $2,500.00 available to ACLS Departments

·  ** For reimbursement, PAID Invoices must be submitted to Doug Smith

EMA

Fuelman Report

(1)         Fiscal Year 2020 Voted/Approved Budget Amount of $50,000.00

(2)         Oct Total $2019 Budget of $ 50,000.00 (per month $4,167.00), October recorded usage amount $6,116.00 ~ 147% over the monthly budgeted amount.

ICS 300/400 Blount County 3 Day Class – To be scheduled after the first of the year with the Alabama Fire College.

December 3, 2019 Annual Winter Exercise will be held in the EMS Offices 8:00am -12:00pm.

911

·  Per Neal Brooks: David Morgan, will begin handling all “system work” related to 911 operations.

·  Request for responders can be made via the “Responder Personnel Form”: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfo5BHDw16wZ-KXfahNx9ii2KQ_tcB4lfp78c6Pux3IjEnqew/viewform

·  GeoTab Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) is available, $9.00 per month per device. Those interested can contact Blount County 911.

Communications – No Report

Training

·  Josh Gibson requests emails be forwarded to him (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) regarding training upcoming opportunities, he will update the training calendar: https://www.blountcofireandemsassociation.org/training/training-calendar 

·  Move towards unifying communication methods so training opportunities within and around Blount County, are posted and updated regularly on the Blount County Fire and EMS Association website.

·  Josh also requested people or departments interested in hosting or participating in a specific area of train such as: 160 class or Rope I, etc.., email him ASAP.

Fire Prevention

Reminder from Jonathan Ledbetter regarding the installation of Fire Alarms.  Please follow up on the installation of smoke detectors request made through community engagement events. Emails are sent to the appropriate area departments that have residents requesting smoke alarm installations, please check your emails regularly.  

Forestry

Matt Tucker emphasized the importance of updating your Vol. Department’s roster with Forestry. Email the updated roster to Matt ASAP; he will be making the updates to the Forestry Registry in December.

Special Operations

Kenny Booth reported with the conclusion of Rope I class soon he would like to host, possible in the springtime, a Rope class allowing people the opportunity to brush up on the skills learned.  Then follow-up with a Surface Water Class for those still interested in participating with the Blount County Special Ops group. 

St. Vincent’s Blount – No Report

BREMSS - No Report

Blount EMS

·  Wesley Powell presented the report for Blount EMS.

·  Ron Fuller – new Blount EMS Field supervisor, joining Chris Manning and Ryan Alexander.

·  AAC meeting will be held at the Blount 911 Operations Center Friday Oct 15 at 4:00pm.

·  Preliminary report for October 2019:

(3)         857 Calls for Service

(4)         497 Priority 1 Transports

(5)         92.56 % Compliant for Service

**For October: Rolled 2 Calls to another agency, 12 calls for mutual aid and 4 Call ins**

·  Drug shortage of D50, guidelines for the administering D10 can be obtained from Blount EMS or contacted their department’s Medical Control Director.

·  Food Drive for Hope House “Drive Away Hungry”, asking departments to help in collecting food to fill the back of ambulance.  Main collections points: Oneonta Fire and Rescue and Blount EMS.

·  Survival Flight awaiting final inspection from the state – will be based out of Rainbow City. Per Neil Brooks, no updates or data GIS changes in CAD system, will use existing data.

Law Enforcement – No Report

State Fire Marshall – No Report

Coroner

Appreciation for assistance and good work.

Blount County District Attorney Office – No Report

LifeSaver, RAMS, Air-Evac – No Report

Alabama Fire College

·  February 10th – Sprinkler Installation Class, reflect new law change allowing master plumbers to install sprinklers in residential homes.

·  Alabama Fire Chiefs Conference – Feb 3rd – Feb 6th; registration is open.

·  Alabama Fire College is up for Pro-Board Review in December 2019.

·  Project Roll Call: Identify and honor fall Fire Fighters prior to 1981: https://www.firehero.org/fallen-firefighters/project-roll-call/

·  All Hazards Class requires ICS 100, 200, 300, 400, 700 and 800 classes are PRE-REQ for the all Hazards Class. Those taking this class should consider joining the Alabama Incident Management Team (IMT).

·  EMT reimbursement opportunities have expanded to include EMT- Basic, EMT-Advance and EMT-Paramedic via approved 2 year institution: Volunteer Rescue Student Tuition Reimbursement Program (Act 2018-524, HB 385) in 2018

·  BREMSS Banquet November 19, 2019 at 6:30pm Pelham Civic Center, RSVP with Aubrey at BREMSS.

·  Alabama Fire College has agreed to donate one of the Fire College’s unused enclosed trailers for use by the Blount County Fire and EMS Association Junior Fire Fighter Academy.

Red Cross – No Report

VOAD

·  Larry Stone provided information from the State VOAD meeting – incident crisis management software ( Note: since 2012, 46 states have had 1600 events effecting over 80,000 families, within Alabama 37 events are still open in Lee County), it’s a national VOAD software that requires additional vetting. 

·  VOAD meetings:  Dec 10, Jan 14, Feb 11 at 10:30am each month.

·  VOAD appreciation for those departments that participated in the Veterans Day Parade.  Proceeds from VA events go towards assisting with transportation arrangements for Vets.

OLD Business

Oneonta Christmas Parade Tuesday 10 – Line up time 6:30pm

Hayden Christmas Parade December 3 – Line up time 5:30-6:00pm

NEW Business

2020 Budget Proposal, review and discussion. John Reed pointed out the proposed budget is off by $10.00, $10.00 will need to be added back into one of the line items. 

·  Chairman Hill called for a vote to accept the proposed 2020 Budget, noting the $10.00 difference to credited back into one of the existing line items.

Motion to Accept:  JJ Ivey -  West Blount

2nd Motion to Accept: Michael Walker - Cleveland

The 2020 proposed budget with modification approved with no objection or further corrections.

·  Alabama’s First Responders Benefit Program:

AL HB360 - Career firefighters, cancer benefits, supplemental insurance coverage provided under certain conditions, available to volunteer firefighters under certain conditions, payments and premiums exempt from state income tax.

Chairman Hill inquired as to how other volunteer departments would handle providing the insurance coverage for their volunteers, if any departments have received quotes for coverage, any concerns regarding the language.  Further discussion postponed until the January meeting.

·  Pump Testing - $200.00 for one truck or $175.00 for five or more trucks. Email Jonathan Ayers - Royal

January

Remlap

July

Nectar

February

Sneed

August

Mount High - Ricetown

March

West Blount

September

STV Blount

April

Coroner Office TBD

October

Holly Springs

May

Blountsville

November

Palisades

June

Straight Mountain

December

Oneonta