Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
Annual General Meeting 2011
5771 Green Lake North Road, 70 Mile House, BC, V0K 2K1
www.wlnglfiredept.org
No one ever said this was going to be easy. When most of the present Board members got involved with the Fire Department, we knew there would be a few problems. I personally thought things would get smoother far sooner, but, just when everything seems to be on track, something comes along to knock us off the rails. Fortunately, and it is certainly a credit to this community, there are always enough volunteers to get the engine back up and running again.
Well, this has been one of those years with some pretty high ups and some very low downs. Most serious of the low points occurred during December when, through an unfortunate series of problems, we did not have enough certified First Responders available to keep that program running during the weekday, daytime hours.
Being a First Responder requires a commitment to volunteer for a second night of training every week, and this makes it very difficult for any fire department to maintain a full roster of First Responders. For this very reason many departments can’t even offer the service and, for this same reason, we have written into our bylaws that only “when qualified First Responders are available [ will we ] provide First Responder service to the community at no charge.”
In late December the Fire Chief was forced to inform the 911 dispatch that our First Responder service had been suspended until further notice. Then, in early January the service was briefly re-instated. However, with several of our personnel either away or working at their regular jobs, the only available First Responder during the week days was the Fire Chief himself. Unfortunately, for several reasons, our Fire Chief resigned his post in January. Now, since we believed we had no one available to respond to medical aid calls during the week days, the Acting Chief, Andy Palaniak, had no alternative but to again suspend the service.
Our remaining First Responders continue to practice weekly and we have begun a recruitment campaign for volunteers who can find the time to be First Responders only. That means they have to be associated with the Fire Department but will not be expected to become Firefighters.
It is important that we continue to support this level of training among our people since several times a year they are called-out to motor vehicle incidents where, in addition to the many response duties, there are often injured people who require immediate attention. We must also maintain at least a minimum level of first aid for our own personnel.
Our First Responder Service to the community is still suspended. Everyone associated with this Fire Department wants to get this important service up and running once again. I am sure every community that has the numbers of volunteers to provide medical aid to their people strongly believe in the importance of this type of service. Our First Responders are well-trained, highly
dedicated and believe passionately in the service they can provide. As you all well know this is predominately a retirement and recreational community and consequently we rely on our First Responders to be there to help us in case of an emergency involving ourselves or our guests.
But we cannot resume this service without the help of the community.
We need more volunteers.
I ask each and everyone of you here who are already involved to consider volunteering enough of your time to join with your neighbours who are working so hard to keep this service alive, to get it up and running again. The course itself is not difficult. I taught similar courses created by WorkSafeBC, St. John Ambulance and the Red Cross for many years to people from all walks of life and in that time I had very few failures. You need only to give two hours a week to join with your friends here and hone your skills in dealing with various injuries. You will, of course, be on-call to respond should a medical aid incident arise, but on the average there are only about fifteen of these calls a year. I know that with this audience I am, as they say, “singing to the choir,” so please take this information to your friends and neighbours and let’s get those numbers up. If you know of anyone who may be interested, let Giselle or Candace know so that they can talk to them – their enthusiasm is infectious.
On a brighter note, your Firefighters are there for you 24/7 and the staffing problem plaguing our First Responder Service has absolutely no impact on the department’s ability to provide emergency fire protection services. We have a full complement of members, but we can always use more, and our equipment is in good shape for its age. Our members do regular monthly minor service and Alan Watrich and Alan Boyd, with their considerable heavy equipment experience, have been volunteering their time to look after major servicing items.
There is a bit of an incentive to becoming a member of the department beyond doing something worthwhile for your community. At past meetings I have asked you all to contact your local Member of Parliament on this issue and federal opposition parties have been pushing for a number of years for a tax break for volunteer firefighters. The current government has finally made this a reality, although it’s not quite as good as it sounds. Here’s how it works. Our volunteers need to have 200 hours of volunteer service in a year, and being on call 24/7 contributes to the 200 hours so most would achieve that in less than a month. For this they get a small credit on their income tax (lowest tax rate, generally 15% x $3000 or roughly a $450 tax credit). Other than that, it’s a well-deserved pat on the back and the undying gratitude of their neighbours for a job well done.
Last spring we were able to introduce the new to us water tender, T12. This vehicle was a real find and was the first step in getting water rapidly from the source to the fire. Now, since we started the buying process in 2011, we can announce the entry of replacement Tender T21 to the fleet. Alan Watrich went to California at Christmas and thoroughly checked-out this vehicle. He reported back to us that it was in excellent shape with a lot of extras that we can use. It was specifically designed for fighting wildfires and could be quite useful here. So, we entered into negotiations with the dealer and we feel we got a really good deal.
This newest truck will take the place of the older and much slower T21 in transporting water from the closest source to a fire scene. This spring Acting Chief Palaniak will be conducting tests of our water supply and pumping abilities prior to arranging a test demonstration for the Insurance Underwriters. For the past five years we have been working toward this proof of our capability to the Underwriters so that we can qualify for a 3B classification with the resulting insurance deductions for all paid-up property owners. Hopefully this will be our year.
Year-round sources of water continue to be a problem. Pumping access points on Green Lake are lower than they have been for a number of years. Watch Lake accesses pose several problems throughout the year, but we have plans to expand the holding capacity of a pond at Tristam Road.
The trailer and pump system attached to FR12 is very effective, but it is dependent upon a reliable water source. We are just getting started on the installation of an 8500 gallon in-ground storage tank and if all goes ahead as planned we have a tentative offer of funding from the Gaming Branch to put in a well to keep this tank filled as a reserve source of water to fill the tenders. This is really 2012 AGM information, but it is a bit too exciting to avoid just this brief mention today.
At the July meeting we announced our revised 911 response policy. This was turned into headline news by the local newspaper and began our “fifteen minutes of fame”. The fifteen minutes grew into days and even weeks of coverage of an issue that has been standard operating procedure both here in the Cariboo Regional District and, it turns out, across North America. This one small issue attracted the attention of CBC Radio, newspapers, firefighting blogs on the internet and Global TV. We were variously quoted and miss-quoted in such papers as the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Financial Post, and Thompson’s World Insurance News.
While in California to inspect our newest truck, Alan Watrich discovered that many departments in that state have had to go private to cut their tax burden and the no response policy is an important part of their operating procedures. In January I was contacted for an interview by a reporter in Atlanta, Georgia who was writing an article for the Wall Street Journal. He wanted details about both our financial support and response policy. Apparently many departments in that part of the US are also moving away from tax-based operations to user-pay systems such as ours. As we saw here a few years ago, for us to become a part of the CRD emergency services would be far too expensive. If anyone would like once again to see the rates other areas pay, please contact Rowena Bastien at the CRD. I also have a list of rates paid by neighbouring communities.
In all, we certainly got the message out about the importance of paying fire dues. Combined with Bill Thomas’ door-to-door campaign our subscription has risen to the highest percentage ever. As was noted in the
Winter Newsletter
, and contrary to popular belief, we have not provided any of the insurance companies with a list of the owners of unpaid properties. What they did ask for some time ago, and what we have provided, is a list of all property addresses within our fire protection area (without owner’s name attached). This is not classified information. It is readily available from the CRD. However I understand that after receiving the Thompson’s Insurance News article, a local insurance agency began calling its clients and asking if they had paid their annual fire assessment.
We have had a lot more part-time people asking that we affix their stickers for them as proof that they really do have fire protection. In previous years we had the words “we support” on the stickers. I had these words removed for the 2012 as a courtesy to those people who do not necessarily support us, but have paid their dues anyway.
Once again there are the groups of people in this community who deserve our thanks. First of all, many thanks to our Auxiliary. Their fund raising events, the auction, the garage and bake sale to name but two are fun for all and raise extra funding to supplement our general revenue for special purchases.
I must avoid singling out too many people for special recognition because it may detract from the hard work put in by so many others. With the Auxiliary, however, I must again thank their President Giselle for her many hours coordinating their activities. In addition she rushes home from work to attend Monday fire practices and Tuesday First Responder training.
Another person who deserves special thanks from us is Ron Guenther. Ron is in the hospital and is very ill. We wish him all the best. Ron volunteers at every event and has one of the best attendance records at weekly training sessions. He is also one the most dependable members to be there on call-outs. Ron has always been there for his community.
My fellow Board members work tirelessly behind the scenes and tie all the functions of the department together. We are all directly responsible to you, the membership, for the overall administration of the department and the care and acquisition or construction of assets. If at any time you have any questions, comments or criticism please feel free to contact any one of the directors. We are all here to represent you.
I cannot overlook a special mention of all our Firefighters and First Responders. Under the guidance of Guy Poliseno they have all reached an admirable level of proficiency and certification so that we can all rest assured they are there for us 24/7 in the case of any emergency.
Barb, Candace, Dale, Joanne, Jonni, Giselle and Jayne are the seven women on our department. If there are any women here who would like to join, but think there might be some reason why they shouldn’t, Just ask any of the members – our ladies are a very important part of the crew and can do everything.
As it was brought all too close to home for us with the fire, explosion and resulting fatality in Enderby, all of our volunteers risk their lives for us every time they’re called-out. The next time you meet a with neighbour who is a firefighter give him or her a pat on the back. Thank you all.
We owe much to Guy Poliseno for where we are as a department. With his trusty sidekick Vito, Guy worked tirelessly to bring our equipment up to its current standard. For the past few years Guy has been hardest working, most underpaid, full-time employee ever. Unfortunately Guy feels he can no longer give us all his time and finds it difficult to work within the structure of our Operating Procedures. Thank you, Guy, for all you have done for us.
In the absence of a Chief, Deputy Chief, Andy Palaniak immediately stepped forward to assume the position of Acting Chief. Andy and his wife, Captain / Training Officer, Jayne Palaniak are fully equipped to take on the administration and training roles expected of them. Andy still has a few obligations as a Dentist and does locums in other communities in the Province that will call him away for short periods from time to time. In his absence he has set-up a structure of officers-in-charge so that at no time will the firefighters be without training exercises or direction in the event of an emergency. Welcome to your new position with us Andy and thank you for bravely offering to try to fill some very large boots.
Most of you know of Andy and Jayne’s epic journey to Africa last October and of their ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was a thrill for those of us at the Firefighters’ Appreciation Dinner to be able to see that they were just approaching the summit at that very time.
The contributions of the individual firefighters are too numerous to mention, but I did mention earlier that Vito is out there doing something for us daily. Thank you, Vito.
Also, I hope everyone has seen our notice board in front of Hall #2 this project was mainly paid for by the proceeds from Jayne’s calendars. She puts these together on her own, has them printed, then she does most of the marketing. She also makes sure the message on the board is changed on a regular basis to keep it fresh and interesting.
Finally, many thanks to you, the membership. Without your continued support and encouragement it would be impossible for us to carry on.
This puts me in a particular dilemma – how do you ask a community that has done so much to do more? I know that most of you are already giving as much time as you can, but what about your neighbours? As I said before
we need more volunteers. We are not alone in this shortage of manpower. Other fire departments in the CRD are suffering the same problem. In the past year our neighbours at Lone Butte threatened to shut down their department if more people in the community didn’t come forward. This past week Darrell Blades, the Chief from 100 Mile, had a very good article in the Free Press
in which he describes their need for at least six new recruits. There are people out there and we need just a small contribution of their time.
