White River Township Fire Department

Senior Staff Meeting

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Present:

Chief Tibbetts Chief Cassin Chief Slauter Chief Wilson

Chief Brown Chief Thacker Chief Engmark Capt. Hart

Capt. Arkins Capt. Settles

1. Meeting called to order at 0808.

2. Honor Guard SOG
1. Chief Engmark was unable to get the policy out for review so the item has been tabled until next meeting.

3. Customer Satisfaction Survey Update – Chief Thacker
1. Scott Tichenor is excited about the project and will start getting the project together with Chief Thacker.

4. Shift Training Officer Update – Chief Thacker
1. Chief Thacker has sent an e-mail out to the officers and is waiting for response.

5. NIMS Training Update – Chief Thacker
1. Section 1, 2, 7 & 8 can be done online. Several have been done and have been trickling in to Chief Thacker.
2. Section 300 is a 3 day seminar that will be at the Post Rd. police post. A calendar can be seen on the Homeland Security web site.
3. Chief Cassin wanted to know how many were not compliant, there were 28. Approximately five are currently not active.
4. August 1^st is the deadline to have the mandatory sections complete.

6. ISO Evaluation Update – Chief Brown
1. Wondering if the department should have one person per shift to do some type of physical fitness program. That person would look at the equipment the department currently has, lay out the training rooms correctly and do research on new equipment. This person may do training in instructing physical fitness.
2. Chief Cassin also believes it would be a good idea to have someone conduct preventative maintenance on the fitness equipment. This job may be left to the house captains while someone else would take care of the actual physical fitness.
3. A suggestion to expand the training room in Station 53 was made, especially if the department will be using the building for a few more years.
4. Chief Thacker is going to send out an e-mail to see who would be interested in doing the training.

7. Accreditation – Chief Slauter
1. Preplanning is done and as soon as Firehouse is up and running it will be accessible.
2. Response guidelines for Fire, EMS, and Special Operations are next to be laid out. The department needs to breakout response time for each apparatus along with the time a call comes into dispatch then dispatch to turnout.
3. Pictures of each complex with suite numbers along with each business are needed. Could be listed under complex name. Only complexes over 15,000 sq. ft., hazmat concerns and critical structures are needed.
4. Only one paper copy of all the preplans will be made and it will be kept in the TSU.
5. Chief Engmark asked what the process on updates and new buildings would be. Chief Slauter would like for the department to do the updates once a year, this way it will get the guys inside the buildings getting them familiar with them.

8. ISO Evaluation – Chief Brown
1. Chief Brown has been unavailable and has not been able to get prices. He will have them by the next meeting.

9. Reserve Engine – Chief Slauter
1. The reserve engine is starting to show large signs of stress. It needs new tires ($2000), the crack on the roof is coming back, and the compartment doors are metal on metal. Chief Slauter believes that we should look into the cost of keeping the engine for another year or getting rid of it now. Needham would like to purchase the engine now.
2. Chief Cassin would like to look into the difference in today’s value and the value one year from now. The cost of routine maintenance for the year. Also what the trade in cost is today and what it would be a year from now.
3. Chief Tibbetts would like to see the costs and the loss in keeping the engine for one more year for next meeting.

10. Greenwood Dispatch – Chief Slauter
1. The Greenwood dispatch is controlled by Chief Pitcher and he will stick with his own protocols.
2. That leaves four areas of concern: PI response, Box responses on commercial property, gas line rupture, and grass fire. Greenwood would be willing to sit down and discuss the differences and work out a compromise, as long as the protocols look the same.
3. The next decision would be what channels they would dispatch on, the same or each department on their own, calls for both could be simulcast on both channels. There would be 3 ops channels, one fire and one EMS.
4. This would bring Greenwood dispatch up to around 6000 dispatches a year which they believe they could handle. All peak hours would have two dispatchers along with a supervisor.
5. Chief Pitcher wants to take on everything North of Whiteland Road, splitting the county in two.
6. The benefits are that Greenwood uses the same computer system we do; there would be no cost to this department because the increase would come from the 911 fund. Also Greenwood timestamps the runs by the seconds and transfer rates on dispatches would not be a problem since the majority of calls go to Greenwood first anyway.
7. If you have any other questions, ideas, or comments talk to Chief Slauter.

11. Personnel Issues
1. Ron Metcalf was arrested for racing by Greenwood Police. The situation is being handled by Chief Tibbetts; any concerns should be taken to him.
2. Any disciplinary notes that are entered into Firehouse should also have a corresponding note put into the personnel file.

12. Chief Thacker will be doing incident command training with the Johnson County Incident Command Vehicle on Aug. 3^rd. He also received the grant for the IAFF HazMat class. The class will he held here sometime in January or February 2007.

13. Chief Brown – Elevator access keys have been put on the Rescue, Ladder and Engine 52. Pinehurst also had their ribbon cutting; people will be moving into the apartment soon. It would be a good idea if the firefighters take a look at the layout of some of the buildings because they have several small hidden areas.

14. Captain Hart – Software for re-programming the monitors has arrives and should be completed by the end of July. The new protocols are now out.

15. Meeting called at 0913.