Minutes 09-13-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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(VIPER). He said that the original promises of this system were street level. He said that the majority of their calls are EMS related and most of those are scheduled stand-bys (football games, etc.) He said that he wanted to support some of the other comments such as friction between the agencies and the county departments. He said that on the street level they have good relationships. He said that the fire departments and Emergency Services have good, solid relationships. He did not want this perception to be misconstrued. New Hope Fire Department Chief Mike Tapp said that he agreed with other speakers' comments. Their fire department was formed in 1972 and over the years this fire district is now more urban as opposed to rural years ago. The communities are more transient, which made it more difficult to recruit volunteers. As a result, the department has added paid staff—two at all times in 24-hour shifts. He said that the ISO rating is scheduled for March 2012 and the paid staff spends some time everyday working on ISO improvement. He said that with the study, there are some strained relationships, and these are not between emergency response departments. He said that with the VIPER radio system, the New Hope area does not have any radio towers and he is concerned that folks will get injured with this system in the long run. He said that if the County is going to do something productive that it should consider funding for the infrastructure for their radio systems. He made reference to the insurance ratings and said that the entire district is within an insurance district. He said that New Hope is willing to help anyone with this process. He made reference to call processing delays and said that Orange County is still using paper cards to dispatch a fire call. He said that if there were computerized dispatch equipment that would help a great deal. Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks agreed with all of the comments. He said that Efland is one of three all-volunteer fire departments. He said that Efland trains extensively with its volunteers. He said that the fire study overall has inconsistencies and errors. He does not understand why Mebane and North Chatham were not included. He said that the study does put the fire departments in a good light. He said that Efland works well with other departments. He was part of the steering committee for the study group with the consultants and this was pointed out as an issue, but it is not. Tony Blake made reference to the insurance districts and said that there is a push back on the fire departments, but the push back should be on the insurance companies. He said that instead of reacting to this issue, they may need to just push back from a County perspective. Caldwell Fire Chief Brad Allison spoke about the VIPER system and said that he had a scare over the holidays because of the system not working properly. Regarding the insurance issue, he said that it can be done because Caldwell did it with Eno Fire Department. Regarding the fire study, he made reference to page 34 and said that there was incorrect and inaccurate information about Caldwell and other departments. He said that he has never seen strained relationships between the fire chiefs and the board of directors. Mac Miller— President of BOD of Caldwell Fire Department said that the word he is focused on is cooperation. He said that it is not an issue between the fire departments. The County is fortunate to have the volunteer/paid fire departments it has. He said that there is good cooperation between fire departments. Cedar Grove Fire Chief Jeff Borland said that they have had minimal radio problems with the radios because there is a tower in the area. There are only 18 residents outside of the six- mile fire district radius and the other departments have offered to assist them.