Location: Palisades Park
Date: November 4, 2021
Time: 1900 hours
November 2021 Meeting Minutes
https://www.blountcofireandemsassociation.org
Attendance
- Representatives of each member department were accounted for: Allgood, Bangor, Blount County Rescue Squad, Blountsville, Brooksville, Cleveland, Dallas/Selfville, Holly Springs, Mount High, Murphree Valley, Nectar, Oneonta, Pine Mountain, Remlap, Ricetown, Royal, Straight Mountain, Summit, West Blount.
- Member Departments not present: Locust Fork, Rosa, Snead, Susan Moore
- Associate members present: EMA, 911/Comms, BREMSS, Blount EMS, District Attorney, AL Fire College, VOAD
- Associate Members not present: Forestry, Special Ops, STV-Blount, Law Enforcement, Coroner, LifeSaver, RAMS, Survival Flight, Red Cross
Previous Meeting Minutes
- Motion to Accept: Chief Ivey – West Blount
- 2nd Motion to Accept: Assistant Chief Peak – Straight Mountain
- Minutes were approved with no objections
Financial Reports
- Motion to Accept: Chief Ivey – West Blount
- 2nd Motion to Accept: Assistant Chief Wade – Murphree’s Valley
- Reports was approved with no objections
Old Business
· No Old Business
Committee Reports
Chair’s Report
· The Association is getting $1.5 million dollars, this can not be used on an existing bill. $1,087,000 is being spent on Radios. Each Department and Blount County Rescue Squad will receive 4 truck radios, 8 handhelds, and access for 30 users.
EMA
- Fuelman Report - Our annual budget is $60,000. We have used $7,656.00 this month.
- If you are interested in becoming a ICS 300/400 instructor email Don at EMA for more information on how to get started.
- Blount County Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Lakey is doing some new drills with each school, each hallway has been colored coded and they are asking all first responders to help with the drills. Don has sent out the dates for each school in the county via email.
911
- If you receive text messages from 911, you should notice a new hyperlink on the bottom the text. This is a map of the address and surrounding area.
Training
· The Aerial Class that Oneonta Fire hosted had a 100% pass rate.
· West Blount Fire is starting an in-person 160 class for anyone interested, there will be nothing done online for this class.
· Oneonta Fire is setting up a Open Test Site for the Alabama Fire College at Oneonta.
BREMSS
- EMSA has been extended to sometime in January.
· NREMT has waived education limits for 2022 recertifications.
· We are now back to normal stroke routing in the BRSMSS region.
· There will be no in person BREMSS Banquet this year, BREMSS is doing the same thing as last year and will preview the Firefighter, EMT and Dispatcher of the year for each county. They will also preview each department in the county so please send in your pictures of your department.
Blount EMS
- Counties around Blount are having a horrible time with staffing, Blount County is not having this issue.
- NREMT goes up in price 12/31, so if you need to recertify please do so by this date.
Alabama Fire College
· Beginning in 2022 there will be new books for the Fire Officer class.
· The new website is almost ready to the public.
VOAD
- VOAD had a State meeting with the Food Banks
NO Report from the following Departments:
· Fire Prevention
· Explorer Post
· Forestry
· Special Ops
· STV-Blount
· Law Enforcement
· State Fire Marshall
· Coroner
· District Atty Office
· Al LifeSaver
· RAMS
· Survival Air
· Red Cross
· Jr. FF Camp
NEW Business
· You can purchase Radios with Healthcare Money.
· A vote was made for the following positions and was approved:
o Chairman – Chris Hill
o Vice Chairman – JJ Ivey
o Secretary – Jessica Green
o Treasure – Doug Smith
· A vote was made for the following:
o Firefighter of the year – Josh Gibson
o EMT of the year – Justin Chapman
· More nominations can be accepted from the floor and this will be voted on at November meeting.
· Budget discussion options were put on the floor tonight, and will be voted on at the December meeting.
o Add a new budget item to reimburse officers of the association for travel to meetings (not regular scheduled meetings) per IRS guidelines
o Move the $1200 contingency fund to fire prevention for the 2022-year budget (one time). Recommend we spend this someway next October in the school system.
o Move the $1800 ambulance fines to purchase EMS related training equipment. The CPR Mannikins at Blount EMS are out of date along with the AED Trainer. Over 50% of this equipment use is for Fire Department use/citizens of Blount County. They currently have to use the wristbands for CPR Training and the AED is out date.
o Remove the Good and Welfare line item. We do not have anything officially written down in the rules or bylaws regarding its use. Our efforts could probably be better served with Public Fundraising efforts.
· The meeting locations for 2022 are as follows:
Jan – Remlap Apr – Susan Moore Jul – Pine Mtn Oct – Holly Springs
Feb – Nectar May – Blountsville Aug – Mt. High/Ricetown Nov - Oneonta
Mar – West Blount Jun – Straight Mtn Sept – STV – Blount Dec – Palisades
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2115 hours.
The next meeting will be held on December 2nd, 2021 at Oneonta at 1830 for meal
Meeting Locations – 2021
Jan 7 – Remlap Feb 4 – Nectar March 4 – West Blount
April 1 – Susan Moore May 6 – Blountsville Jun 3 – Straight Mnt
Jul 1 – Pine Mnt Aug 5 – Mt. High/Rtown Sept 2 – STV-Blount
Oct 7 – Holly Springs Nov 4 – Palisades/DA Dec 2 – Oneonta
Jessica Green
Secretary
Blount Co. Fire & EMS Association