Chief's Monthly Report
Fire Department
Monthly Progress Report
West Valley Fire Department
Yakima County Fire District 12
For the Meeting of September 11, 2018
Agenda Topic: Department Monthly Progress Report
Prepared By: Chief Nathan Craig
Date Prepared: September 7, 2018
The primary purpose of this report is to keep the Board of Fire Commissioners informed as to the activities and progress on major programs or objectives. The items listed, as near as possible, are in priority order. As a second purpose, this report will be shared with the Officers Management Team and all fire personnel.
Personnel:
Firefighter Aaron Cockrum has returned from leave and is now assigned to Station 52. Firefighter Dylan Ross has been granted a nine month leave of absence while he attends school.
Starting September, we have 90 volunteers, 75 in service for combat firefighting, 7 in service for support, 6 out of service on leave, 1 on medical leave and 1 on light duty. Our total number of members with volunteers, staff and Commissioners is 100 members.
Strategic Planning:
Progress in August included work on recruitment and retention programs with updating our written plan, developing our recruitment profile and targeting daytime members. Additionally, we opened the community survey for updating the plan and submitted the Management Excellence Award packet for the WFCA.
This month’s strategic focus is researching splitting up stipends for recruit school and EMT to strengthen retention, evaluate and adjust the time commitments required for initial training, survey our members to determine availability for response, review our financials to ensure money is allocated and not banked, staff tour all facilities, and review responses to our open survey.
October 23rd has been selected to begin work on updating the plan with our committee.
Budget/Finance: By Officer Boisselle
I have started putting together fixed budget costs for 2019. We have not received anything yet from the County Assessor’s Office regarding 2019 tax levy rates. I am estimating based on last year, it should be close. A budget calendar has been included in the packet for review.
Department Training and Safety: By Captain Jim Johnston
August Drills included: Equipment Check / Station Drill, EVIP Road Course, EVIP Rodeo & Fit Test, Officers Choice (51 & 54), Ram Ranch Pre-Fire (53), Hose Testing (52) and Firefighter Olympics.
Developed the September Drill Schedule: Equipment Check / Station Drill / PPE Inspection, OTEP Modules 5 & 6 (EMT Well Being & Pharmacology, S.A.F.E. (Suicide Awareness for Everyone – by Comprehensive Mental Health), and Vehicle Extrication.
During August I worked on the 2019 Recruit Class schedule in trying to make it more efficient in general. This year I came up with a Monday, Thursday and every other Saturday concept with an occasional Tuesday in the mix. The draft schedule was handed out and discussed at the August Officers Meeting with it being finalized after input at the September Officers Meeting.
During August I worked with Lieutenant Lyons on the Training Budget for the 2019 Budget.
In August I was notified by the Washington State Fire Marshal’s Office that we were selected to host a National Fire Academy class the weekend of November 3 & 4, the class is Leadership in Supervision: Creating Environments for Professional Growth.
Fire Prevention / Public Education: By Captain Jim Johnston
August was a pretty slow month for Fire Prevention and Public Education events.
In preparation for the upcoming Fire Prevention Week in October, I purchased educational / informational supplies to hand out to the children that we provide Prevention information to.
On September 28th our Department will be manning the Fire Prevention Booth at the Central Washington Fair.
Recruitment & Retention: By LT Chris Lyons
I am still working with Captain Johnston to develop a plan to train our potential day time members, I also understand that we may need to have a flexible plan depending on the availability of the applicants. I have begun advertising that we are looking for day time members utilizing our LED sign at Admin, as well as social media. I received two more applications brining the count to fifteen so far. My recruitment plan is completed and has been updated for the 2019 recruitment year. I have taken the results from the survey and incorporated the information received into the process for next year.
I have received a lot of responses with the survey that was sent out regarding the similarities that our long-standing members have in common. With those results I have made a profile and a set of questions that I believe can assist us during the hiring process to make an informed decision on the members that will have a higher probability of staying with us. I am working with Christy to add some sections to the application that would also help us be better informed on our potential members from an early stage of the hiring process.
CTE Program / Cadet Program: By LT Chris Lyons
School started the last week of August and I currently have sixteen students. Companies have been assigned and we have already completed the first two chapters of the book. I will be issuing the students training gear and getting them outside in the month of September utilizing the nice weather while we still have it.
The cadets from last year’s class all seem to be working very well. I am in communication with the station officers frequently regarding the cadets and they are all fitting nicely at their stations. This year the cadets will be taking on much more responsibility in the classroom and on the training ground. So far, they have all done a very good job helping the first years adjust to how things operate in class, and I have no doubt they will be just as helpful on the drill grounds.
Interlocal:
We have been working with SunComm on how calls are counted based on the contract. The last figures I was provided show 2019 being billed at $33,781.74 which is $5,210.16 less than the original cost we were provided.
SunComm hosted a user’s meeting to review the contract and issues we have with dispatching. At this time Brad is working with Yakima legal to rewrite sections of the contract based on our requests, once the contract is re-written we will meet again to continue discussion on improving the service.
Last month we assisted East Valley with interviewing prospective firefighters.
Operations:
In August there were a total of 61 incidents (10 fires, 29 EMS, 1 service call, 6 false alarms and 15 good intents), 59 of these incidents were handled by our personnel.
Incidents: YTD
Station 51 15 116
Station 52 15 106
Station 53 4 65
Station 54 8 40
Station 50 17 169
Yakima 0 28
Ambulance Only 2 37
YTD 561
Automatic Aid Received (both agencies respond) Automatic Aid Given
From Highland 0 To Highland 1
From Yakima 0 To Yakima 7
From Gleed 0
YTD 10 YTD 32
Mutual Aid Received 0 Mutual Aid Given 5 (Yak, Selah, EV, Dist. 5) YTD 5 YTD 31
Last month we had no reportable losses from incidents. We were activated on one state mobilization fire for a two-day assignment.
Logistics:
We recently acquired a surplus extrication unit from the City of Union Gap along with several saws, vent fans and miscellaneous equipment. The equipment was brought to our attention by Firefighter Craig Bunting and after contacting Chief Cobb we were able to acquire it through surplus.
In August all SCBA and masks were flow tested and any equipment requiring repair sent out for repairs.
The Station 52 addition is more than halfway finished, the addition is up, roofed and the interior walls framed as well as the walls for the office in the existing space, it appears the project is about two weeks behind. We are planning an open house November 7th.
I contacted a realtor to inquire the value of the 5 acres of grass to the west of Station 51. He advised if the land was subdivided its value should be around $255k-$300k, as one big lot it would be valued around $120k. One of the issues may be access to the property due to the berm along Zier Rd. Representative Mosbrucker was interested in possibly sponsoring an idea as a pilot program to develop the land for cost effective housing for volunteers, I am following up on this idea with her office.
Legislative:
Representative Mosbrucker participate in a ride-along with our duty crew August 27th followed by a round-table discussion on recruitment and retention that was attended by our members and representatives from District 1, 5 and 6. Several ideas came from this meeting and she intends to continue to pursue options at the state level to assist volunteer departments.
Good of the Order:
The Association annual baked potato feed is Friday September 14th.
Our annual Officer meeting BBQ will be September 24th 18:00 at Commissioner Eakin’s house, the Board and spouses are invited.
Respectfully,
Nathan Craig
Fire Chief