Persons to Appear

None

Review of Reports and Statistics

The statistics for the month of April and May 2005 were reviewed by committee members. Special attention was given to the area of “No Response” calls.

J. Diamond suggested that the committee take the time to review the tiered response system suggested by B. Gibson at the April meeting. B. Gibson advised that he would bring the information to the next meeting for review by this committee. Discussion followed and S. Bracewell advised that if the depts. chose to change their responses by determinant levels the changes would have to be consistent for all fire districts. She will check into the capability of the system to operate independently. B. Gibson suggested that the county medical director would need to be involved in the decisions made regarding any services that may be eliminated by making these types of changes.

Chief Reble questioned what concerns Rural Metro may have with these types of changes and he also questioned whether the districts should make the determinations for themselves.

J. Diamond interjected at this point that the fire departments may be doing well with the response times to fire calls; however, the medical care of the patient should not be lost in the shuffle as they seem to have a problem responding to the medical calls. B. Gibson stated that the persons trained to be first responders should be sent whenever warranted. Chief Reble mentioned that this is necessary in the north end of the county as Rural Metro has a longer response time and a lower volume of calls in that area.

Discussion ensued regarding different call types, different situations and different needs by all agencies involved.

S. Bracewell indicated that at times calls are upgraded for different reasons such as the age of a patient and his or her medical history.

T. Simmons stated that he sees no point in eliminating responses to these calls in order to improve statistics.

Chief Reble responded by stating that the concept of only responding to the higher priority calls affords Skyline the opportunity to concentrate on responding to those particular calls.

B. Gibson volunteered to look into two-tiered systems that are successful in other areas of the nation. He also suggested a sub-committee be formed to determine what actions would be best to implement in the interest of all agencies and fire districts. Chief Reble advised that the Sunshine Laws would also apply to a sub-committee. B. Gibson then stated that he would have a group created under the direction of James Chalmers to investigate the issues and to include input from the Medical Director.

Review of Correspondence

Reviewed an email from Richard Collins, Pace, regarding fire department meetings.

Old Business

Inmate Work Crews

Chief Reble has not received a response from H. Walker.

Fire Hydrants

This committee will need to meet with water purveyors in order to agree on procedures to test and maintain fire hydrants. We need to agree on expectations of both the fire districts and the water suppliers and will need to make recommendations to the BOCC. A special meeting will need to be scheduled to meet with the water purveyors.

Discussion ensued to determine the guidelines that will be discussed with the water purveyors.

Testing and Maintenance Guidelines:

Mechanics of testing equipment
Water departments should conform to the procedure on an annual basis.
Notification should be provided to a single point of contact when and if a hydrant is not functioning or is out of service. This committee determined that the single point of contact will be the 911 Dispatch Center.
A numbering system should be developed. S. Bracewell advised at this point that Holley was requesting a physical address.
Landscaping (clearing of brush) around hydrant should occur.
S. Bracewell advised that Commissioner Cole requested that the color coding be consistent throughout the county. He also indicated that a marking on the roadway of some sort would be in order.
Discussed the use of reflectors in the area of the hydrants and suggested that it may need to be the responsibility of the Road and Bridge Dept.
Notification of new and/or moved hydrants must be made again to one point of contact (911 Dispatch Center)
A status code for each hydrant could be maintained by the county 911 coordinator at the 911 Dispatch Center,
Input from the water suppliers regarding all issues related to the successful implementation of a hydrant program including a numbering system would be essential.
Must arrive at a consensus on what information or data should be tied to each hydrant.
Color coding of hydrants would be based on flow testing.
Water departments would be responsible for the color coding of the hydrants and the flow testing.
This committee would need to determine which procedure would be recommended for which flow.
Water departments would be required to flow test upon installation of the hydrant and every ten (10) years after or whenever necessary.
Fire departments must notify the water departments of how much water is expended. They must notify the water departments when they are testing the hydrants. Finally, they must notify the water departments and the 911 Dispatch Center of any maintenance needs.

Aleta Floyd and Val Jarvis approached the committee to impart their ideas about contributions that could be provided by the computer/GIS department(s). They include analyzing a unique numbering system possibly utilizing a prefix that would indicate the station number, possibly indicating section, township and range and also working one-on-one with both the fire departments and the water departments.

This committee has scheduled a meeting with all water suppliers for Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 2:00 PM in this BOCC meeting room.

MSBU Funding

J. Diamond urged this committee to remind the fire departments of their responsibility to submit training information and statistics.

J. Diamond also mentioned that the fire departments’ budgets should be submitted on the structured format provided them.

Chief Reble stated that this committee should receive and review audits for the fire departments as there is no mechanism in place to follow up on any discrepancies. It was also stated that it may be necessary to reconcile any end of year expenditures to the budgets.

S. Cozart stated that state statute will support enforcing financial activities on the part of the fire departments.

New Business

Upon the resignation of Dave Ling as the Director of Emergency Management for Santa Rosa County, Sheryl Bracewell has been appointed Interim Director until a replacement is selected.

James Chalmers, Rural Metro, made presentation of their newly acquired ambulance. The ambulance, just added to their fleet, is brightly decorated with summer safety tips and portrays all of the fun things about our beaches.

S. Bracewell advised this committee that she is in receipt of information regarding an available grant that she will pursue and inform this committee of her findings.

Public Comments and Questions

Richard Collins, 8600 Chumuckla Hwy, Pace, FL

Mr. Collins suggested that this committee might consider inviting utility board members to the meeting scheduled for July 20^th with the water departments.
Mr. Collins suggested that the road crews may be utilized for clearing the brush around the hydrants. He also stated that this committee may consider persons performing Community Service as an alternative. He agrees that the volunteers’ plates are already full acting as firefighters without adding lawn maintenance to their list of responsibilities.
Mr. Collins stated that he is not aware of any reflectors indicating the locations of hydrants in the Chumuckla area.

Joe Diamond, Avalon Volunteer Fire Department, Milton, FL

Avalon Fire Dept has acquired twelve (12) new volunteers mostly due to the fact that they publicized their weekly meetings on a sign close to the roadway!

Meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM

Next meeting is Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 2:00 PM