White River Township Fire Protection District
Staff Meeting
April 27 & 28, 1999

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Tuesday (27th) meeting called to order at 1300 hours.  Present:  Mike Dutton, Chad Abel, Eric Brown, Dave Sherfick, Mike Tibbetts, Joel Thacker, Joe Settles, Kim Clawson,.

Wednesday (28th) meeting called to order at 1300 hours.  Present:  Mike Dutton, Jeremy McKee, Bruce Alexander, Carey Slauter, Joe Marsh, Kim Clawson, Jeremy Pell, Eric Brown, and Joel Thacker. 

IF YOU WERE UNABLE TO ATTEND, REMEMBER TO CONTACT YOUR LIEUTENANT IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING ANYTHING THAT WAS DISCUSSED.

 1.        Effective immediately, Kim will begin placing staff minutes in FireHouse instead of copying and distributing to each person.  To access these log into FireHouse, click on the Staff Activities button, enter the date of the staff meeting, hit enter, choose the staff meeting entry and click okay.  When the activity is brought up on the screen, there will be three tabs at the top.  Minutes can be found under the notes tab.  (This is a lot easier than it sounds.)  By placing minutes in FireHouse, time and paper will be saved by not copying the minutes to each person.  A “master” book will be kept in the office.  Any ‘sensitive’ items will be removed from the FireHouse copy and left in the copy that’s placed in the “master” book. 

2.         When you are having something shipped here, no matter what company it is from, PLEASE!!! have your name put on it SOMEPLACE!  

3.        Jeff Wilson has resigned.  Jason Bailey and Kirk Schilling will be moving from Reserve to Compensated. 

4.        Meacham missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Casey Arkins.

Beasley missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Chad Abel.

Manlove missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Joe Marsh.

Bancroft missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Mike Tibbetts.

McMillan missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Mike Tibbetts.

Wymer missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Joel Thacker.

Graphman missing/not returned equipment – assigned to Dave Sherfick.

 5.        Rod Pressel of Hoosier Fire present on Tuesday to demonstrate new heat sensor.  After both groups had a chance to demo the unit, it was approved unanimously to purchase it. 

6.        Discussion of fireground tactics used on both the Sutton Park Drive fire and Gallagher Drive fire. 

7.        FPDB update.  Misc. items:

-          Station 52 ground boring will begin soon to determine if the south wall is in danger of collapsing.

-          Station 51 is talking to our neighbors in an effort to tie in with their sewer line.

-          Written exam for the Battalion/Lieutenant hiring process is this Saturday, May 1.

-          Specialized equipment that was ordered has begun coming in.

-          Gear should arrive around May 1.

 8.        After speaking with officials from DEA and the State, Lt. Alexander is in the process of getting ideas for better securing narcotics from Engine 51.  

9.        Because of the problems with signing the narcs out at both stations, Lt. Alexander is considering trying to implement a policy that enforces this or the person will receive their next 3 scheduled shifts off without pay. 

10.     Chief Dutton advised Captain Thacker that he would like to see Lt. Alexander working on obtaining EMS grants for the Department.

11.     Chief Dutton will be assigning Chief Cassin the task of obtaining a specific list of equipment that Ray Werts has reported missing so that we may close this issue as soon as possible. 

12.     Lt. Alexander, with the help and direction of Dr. Fried, is also working on establishing a committee to review/revise our protocols. 

13.     Gary Borden is now the Operations Manager for PMT ambulance. 

14.     Chief Dutton mentioned that we are looking at going to set shifts July 1. 

15.     Chief Dutton stated that Brian Bosma has reviewed the overtime hours policy for a volunteer firefighter according FLSA.  Chief feels that eventually, the part time employees will be asked to work for the District Board.  

16.     Medic 52 has been sporatically going in and out of service, as well as BLS/ALS.  E52 officer should enter all status changes in FireHouse under staff activities/special event. 

17.     When Medic 52 is in any other status than ALS, Medic 51 will take all calls in the district. 

18.     Captain Slauter has issued a memo (attached) instructing officers and battalions what to do in the event of an injury or department vehicle accident.  

19.     Chief Dutton and Chief Brown have spent Wednesday morning investigating the alleged criminal misconduct of one of our personnel.  It was taken to the police before it was brought to the attention of the Chief Officers.  If any thing like this should ever happen again, Chief Dutton asked that it be brought to his attention before the police are involved. 

20.     New SOG (642) for Mass Casualty Incidents has been implemented and a copy was given to each officer and battalion. 

21.     Captain Thacker stated that trainings will deal with new subjects (i.e.: ropes) and will probably have new instructors who are not used to teaching in front of large groups.  Joel will not tolerated the hassling of these instructors by anyone and he hopes that if an officer is present that they will not tolerate it either. 

22.     Current observers policy needs to be reviewed and rewritten to explain exactly what they are/are not to do while they are here, as well as their dress code. 

23.     Joel is working with North Grove’s principal on hosting a mock disaster drill.  More information will be forthcoming. 

24.     Staff Trainings will soon include Safety Officer and Public Information Officer.  Both courses are six hours each and will be ‘spread out’ over the week as much as possible to include each shift.  Exact dates will be announced soon. 

25.     Lt. McKee stated that he has placed compartment labels on Engine 51 and Rescue 51.  Engine 51 compartments have been cleaned and detailed. 

26.     We are still in the process of trying to hook Station 51 into the neighbor’s sewer system. 

27.     New Hope Church has recently purchased an AED and has trained their people in it’s use.  They conduct weekly CPR trainings as well. 

28.     Someone from Walter’s Body Shop recently went to station 52 to remove the road paint from the wheel wells of the Tanker.  He was going to donate this service until someone there allegedly was ‘rude’ to him.  He left without performing the work, therefore leaving the Department to pay for this if we choose to do it.  Please always try to be courteous and professional.  (No one is sure who called him to begin with.) 

29.     Chief Brown has issued a copy of Knox Box locations in everyone’s mailboxes.  A copy will also be put in the front of each truck’s map book. 

30.     Chief Brown summarized upcoming construction in the District:

-          Eighteen 3-story apartment buildings between 800N and 850N on 135.

-          Eight to ten apartment buildings at Stones Crossing & 135 (where we’ve been training).  That entire corner is zoned commercial so the possibility for a strip mall is good.

-          Retirement center at Olive Branch & 135.

-          A 36 unit Alzheimers facility on County Line Road.

-          A Catholic Church at Stones Crossing & 135.

-          Condos (30-40 quads) at Smith Valley just east of the railroad tracks.

He will draft this up and present to the District Board on their May 6 meeting so that they will see the level of growth we are experiencing.

 31.     Approval has finally come through for us to purchase MECA radios. 

32.     The 5th seat has been put back into Engine 52.  After discussion, it was approved to put it back into Engine 51 as well.  Air packs have been removed from Chief’s vehicle and Eric’s vehicle to place on these seats.  When the Aerial comes in, they will be put back on their respective vehicles.  Also, a memo will be issued telling everyone that when the staffing is available, both Engine 51 and Rescue 51 will be manned (i.e.:  3 on Engine, 2 on Rescue – not 5 on the engine…etc.). 

33.     Chief Dutton will issue a reminder memo that there will be no outside activities at either station (i.e.: basketball, fishing, etc.) until after 1600 hours. 

34.     Captain Thacker stated that Dr. Fried has been having problems meeting our new training schedule.  Chief Dutton instructed him that any time Dr. Fried could do an A&R, that’s when it will be scheduled.  The next A&R is May 13 at 1600  and 1930 hours. 

35.      Lt. Alexander stated that he would like to review and revise the SOPs for BLS procedures.