JUNE - 2008
Station Notes & News
By Chief Bud Brinkerhoff
A Business Meeting was held on May 6th, the minutes of which are attached. I encourage you to read these minutes as they will keep you updated on what is going on in the department as well as provide relevant feedback from the Sandoval County Chiefs Association meeting.
Purchasing of supplies and equipment is on hold pending funding for the next fiscal year, sometime after July 1st. Only emergency purchase requests will be entertained until the new funding.
On Sunday, June 1st we will welcome the new recruit class to our group with a all-member scenario involving the recruits, followed by a barbecue dinner and the swearing in of the new recruits.
Service 41 has returned to Station 41 with a new panel box. At the last Chiefs’ Association Meeting, the District Chiefs approved the funding of a ‘boombox’ to be installed in Service 41; which will facilitate making this unit capable of filling SCBA bottles on fire scenes.
June, July and August are difficult times for our fire department because the risk of fires is so great and many of our members are traveling out of the area. Active members should endeavor to log their absence on the board at Station 41. Those of us still in the area can use this means of keeping abreast of availability of staff in the event of a structure fire or significant EMS incident.
June promises to be a busy month for meetings and trainings. Please carefully review the activities schedule to ensure that you don’t show up on a date that has been changed due to conflict. I want to encourage as many members as possible to participate in regular training opportunities, but to also endeavor to avail yourself of our special events such as the June 1st scenario and dinner, attending the booth at the June 7th Placitas Appreciation Day event and participation in the July 4th parade activities.
In other news, many of the planned activities and projects will have to wait for the funding in July to proceed. This includes Service 41 remodeling, Station 42 remodeling and the asphalt resealing and painting/striping of Parking lots and bays.
On June 10th, the Sandoval County Fire administration would like to meet with PVFB members to discuss the plans for Station 43 which will be located at mile marker ‘0’ on Highway 165. I have set aside a time of 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Station 41 for this purpose.
Please try to attend this meeting and ask any questions you may have regarding the construction and operation of our third main station.
EMS Happenings.
By Assistant Chief, Sandy Escarcida
A major change is taking place regarding the method used for recording our EMS runs. Soon we will no longer be writing them out, but will, instead, be entering the data on to the NMEMSTARS on-line charting web site.
Recently, Dr. Froman and Jesse Mowrer (an IT guru for the NMEMSTARTS procedure) provided us with an overview of how the new system works. Our system administrator, Chief Bud, will enter our EMS certified members into the program which will enable these members to submit reports and all of us must be trained in how to do this.
The Chief would like us to be using the electronic reporting by July 1st. To facilitate that goal, I am changing the EMS training schedule for June and July. On June 10th and June 25th we will review what we have learned regarding this new reporting system as well as practice entering bogus data to get used to the system before we go “live” with real data. On July 8th we can review our first several reports and fine tune our reporting practices. All EMS certified volunteers must receive this training because once we are “live”, there is no going back to the old method of pen and paper for reporting our EMS runs.
I am confident we can do it and do a great job. The nice thing about this system is that you can enter your run report data from the comfort of your home and don’t have to do it from the station.
On another, but related topic, there have been a number of tasks that are the responsibility of the EMS team that are not getting done. At the June team meeting on Friday, June 6th, I want to meet with all EMS certified members so we can develop a plan for accomplishing our tasks. One of the tasks is doing QA (quality assurance) for all EMS reports. Dr. Froman gave me the idea of rotating that task among all EMTs which we will explore.
Station 42 is undergoing many renovations and there are more planned for this summer. Our goal is to make it ‘look pretty’ once again so that can be proud of our first fire station, use it more and dedicate an attractive and historic building in memory of Chief Tom Threadgill.
We are planning a 35 year anniversary and dedication for Sept. 27th at Station 42, so mark your calendars for that day. More information will be coming your way as the summer rolls on. Until then, I am scheduling cleanup brigades for that Station during the summer. But you don’t have to wait for a scheduled cleaning; just go up there and take a load of trash to the dump.
As always, my heartfelt thanks to all of you who respond to medical emergency calls.
Upcoming Calendar
Please mark your calendars with the following:
June – [No birthdays to celebrate]
1st, Sun. – Recruit Scenerio, 3-5 p.m., dinner 5-6 p.m.
2nd, Mon. – Fire Training, FF I certification, 7 p.m.
3rd, Tues. – Election Day, Station 41 unavailable 6 a.m. – 9 p.m.
5th, Thurs. – Business Meeting, 7 p.m.
6th, Fri. – Safety and Team Meeting, 7 p.m.
7th, Sat. – Placitas Appreciation Day
9th, Mon. – Fire Training, FF I certification, 7 p.m.
10th, Tues. – Mtg. with Sandoval County Fire Chief to discuss Station 43 plans, 6 p.m.
10th, Tues. – EMS Training, Electronic report filing, 7 p.m.
14th, Sat. – CPR Training, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. (lunch provided)
15th, Sun. – Fire Fighter First Aid Training, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (lunch provided)
16th, Mon. – Fire Training, FF I certification, 7 p.m.
23rd, Mon. – Fire Training, FF I certification, 7 p.m.
25th, Wed. – EMS Training, Electronic report filing, 7 p.m.
30th, Mon. – Fire Training, FF I certification, 7 p.m.
July – [Happy Birthday wishes go out to Jo Thompson and John Wolf]
1st, Tues. – Business Meeting, 7 p.m.
3rd, Thurs. – Parade Preparation, 5 p.m.
4th, Fri. – Annual Parade
8th, Tues. – EMS Training, Electronic report review, 7 p.m.
19th, Sat. – Fire Training, 10 a.m.
23rd, Wed. – EMS Training, 7 p.m.
30th, Wed. – Fire Training, 7 p.m.
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