White River Township Fire Department, Inc.
Officer Meeting Minutes
April 23, 1997
Station 51
Present: Chief Mike Dutton, Lieutenant Mike Shoemaker, Lieutenant Travis Sichting, Assistant Chief Scott Cassin, Captain Eric Brown, Kim McKee, Assistant Chief Jeremy Pell, Captain Jeff Wilson, Lieutenant Thacker, Kevin Skipper, Steve Coover, and Troy Wymer.
Attachments:
1. Copy of agenda attached. Note: FYI items on agenda do not appear in minutes below. (*All officers & coordinators were given a copy of the agenda on Friday, 3/21. If you do not have a copy of this agenda, see Kim.)
1a. Shift assignments.
1b. Dispatch protocols.
2. Memo from Lt. Martindale proposing changes to evaluation process.
3. 1998 DRAFT budget.
4. Administrative and operational duties of battalion chief.
5. Blank agenda form for next month’s meeting.
1. Scott reported that there are still 7 reports missing from this year. Still in process of trying to contact those personnel to get these reports done!! April is going well because everyone is putting in their own reports! Kim and Scott are quality control checking them so that they show ‘complete’ for reports before 4/1/97. Starting 4/1/97, Andy is QC checking fire reports and Joel is QC checking EMS report.
2. Scott would like to see every division head submit something for the newsletter each month. Turn it in to Scott at least by the last week of the month. This will allow for better communication within the department.
3. Eating policy (North of Main Street) discussed. The current policy is not being enforced. Everyone agreed that the on-duty battalion should know what his crews are doing. Everyone also agreed that we can switch stations or use common sense. If you go north of Main Street, get it & bring it back. No group lunches unless at one station or the other. Use common sense!! Pizza King is okay due to central location. Scott will modify policy to show same.
4. Jeremy discussed shift assignments made for the month of May. Points were given for rank, seniority, certification level. Hours are still there for people who did not get a shift.
5. Rescue/tactical discussion. Troy made presentation for reserve personnel to staff 3rd/4th person at both stations. Chief wants 100% commitment from Reserves before this is okayed. Everyone agreed. No policy changes to be made!! Jeremy would automatically schedule them at st.1. Everyone agrees that it’s good to have trucks switched. Everyone agrees that personnel should stay as they are.
6. Agenda item #12 tabled until Rick Cooley can present it.
7. Discussion on water rescue. Equipment has been included in the specs for the new rescue. No changes to dispatch protocol will be made. We will have to trust our officers to evaluate the situation. IFD will not be an automatic dispatch. Once the new rescue is in, the Operations Division will update SOGs and will train personnel on the water rescue equipment.
8. Attachment 2 - memo from Lt. Martindale proposing changes to evaluation process. Everyone agrees that this would be better and Scott will incorporate into a policy.
9. Attachment 3 - DRAFT budget for 1998. Chief announced that division budgets must be submitted ot him no later than May 15.
10. Joel, Jeremy & Chief will work with FPDB members Butch, Tug, & Chuck to educate them on the needs of the fire department by June. Other district board members, Jon & Bill, have fire/EMS background and seem to understand. The FPDB must take serious look at phase 2 of debt redemption for 1997 for the amount of $51,000.
11. Joel will form committee to sit down & work out presentation/proposal for ALS service at WRTFD before we think about it. Concept: budget looks great! We get third person back, tanker gets replaced, and ALS program is instated.
11. Eric proposal on medic program, funding, etc.
12. Wishard affiliation. After recent meeting with Judy Hallom, Wishard’s Director of Education, it was announced that they want to provide sponsorship to us. Since there is a contract amount of $1,500, it still must be approved by our board. They will allow us to send 1 person per year from here to PI school. Joel is reviewing and comparing Wishard & Community Hospital protocols. Wishard is more in depth. EMT class will start once affiliation has been set.
13. Wilson is still working with Marsh on coming up with a tracking system for out of service equipment.
14. Ryan Cox started out as a reserve firefighter here and was moved to compensated just before he took his state EMT exam. He did not pass this exam and will be returned to the reserve platoon.
15. We will be receiving gas cards for each apparatus to be used at the Meijer store. These cards will be good for fuel only and will not be honored in the store.
16. Discussion on mutual aid with Bargersville. It was agreed that E52 will be doing all standby coverage on Bargersville’s station which will leave E51 to cover our entire district from a centrally located place. It was also agreed that there will be no more formal meetings at this time between our officers and their officers.
17. False alarms letter from Eric has been placed in every officer’s mailbox. Be sure to read!
18. Need to order patches. Patches stay forever!
19. Badges need to be ordered. Eric & Travis will be working up price proposals and submitting to the Chief.
20. Discussion on Perry Twp. automatic mutual aid on anything north of Fairview Road. This is only a short term fix for 20% of district. Rural Metro is not honoring the contract. They are having response times of less than 11minutes for only 40% of runs with us. Chief advises that this is a question which should be addressed to our attorney since it’s a breech of contract. Joel investigating mutual aid prospects w/Perry Township and will report back to the Chief for further action. Battalions need to listen to where Rural Metro is coming from!
21. Request that preventive maintenance for apparatus be scheduled at least one week in advance and placed on department events calendar.
22. We will be completely computerized (i.e.: department journal, run reports, etc) by June 1.
23. Attachment 3 - Battalion Duties both Administrative & Operations. This is a rough draft designed to help newer people on battalion list. Chief would like to see it more structured by next month. Wilson will complete & present then.
24. Chief wanted to remind everyone that we are all working together to get the same goals accomplished and he will consult anyone as a resource to get it done. He welcomes input, ideas and suggestions but he will have the final say. He is working very hard to keep everyone updated and the communications lines open. However, some things will get missed from time to time. We are still moving forward!
25. Scott announced that everyone that wants an email address can have one now for free. This will solve the inter-department mailbox problem.
26. No further new business. Meeting adjourned at 2100 hours. Next meeting will be May 28 at 1900 hours at station 51. Agendas are due to Chief Dutton no later than May 21.