Source: UPDATE: Diamond Bar Road fatal accident | Kingman Daily Miner
“… Rescue personnel were on the scene quickly and tried to save the driver, but were able to get the survivors to the hospital. There were also off-duty medical professionals from out of state who stopped and performed CPR, which played a huge factor in saving the two passengers, Carter said. …”
That’s why Meadview residents aren’t supposed to be waiting for an ambulance for hours and we need a fully staffed fire station.
Did you noticed that LMRFD was absent at the tanker accident? Amazing
Wondered about that too, must have been elsewhere.
Please excuse…I couldn’t find a place to email you information on your contact page, so am putting it here. Wondering if you would be interested in helping prepare documents to present to the County for the Boundary Change Impact Statement, as the first step to annexing non paying properties into the fire district? As you saw from the “Tax Revenue and Personnel Cost Analysis” I passed out at the LMRFD Board meeting, even with all of the properties in the Meadview/Lake Mead City area annexed in, there still isn’t sufficient revenue to put 2 people on shift in Meadview, and that is our ultimate goal. Annexation will be a start. All the properties being serviced by the LMRFD should be paying into the district anyway. We will be pursuing several other potential sources of revenue as well. If you can drum up any additional volunteers in Meadview that would be helpful. There will be lots to do as we move forward with pursuing alternative funding options. Thanks! Ellen
Ellen, what we really need is a PLAN. I’d like to see WHEN Meadview will be FULLY STAFFED.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. Anything short of 2 staff 24/7 is NOT worth pursuing.
In a life and death situation we need to know who to call. From all I read, 911 is less than ideal, often refusing to communicate medic ETA, where they’re coming from, etc.
Personally, I’m at the point where I’m thinking about trying to locate older medics looking to retire and maybe we can get some REAL medical help out here. Basically privatizing what LMRFD will likely never do for us — provide emergency care in a TIMELY manner.
Ellen, why would I want to join a fire district that’s telling me to shut up at board meetings as yesterday?
Until this board gets a grip on reality, stops wasting my time on correcting typos in documents that SHOULD have been read by ALL board members PRIOR to the meeting and focuses on providing TIMELY service to Meadview, I have NO intention on wasting my money.
Sorry, Ellen, I know you have put a lot of time into this, but I am concerned with the well being of our community, not with raising funds for a fire district that doesn’t care one bit about Meadview.
Meadview is rarely mentioned in any of the meetings unless I bring it up.
Here’s the PLAN. STEP 1. Pursue all funding options immediately available to ensure survival of the Fire District, including annexation of all properties that are within the service area but not paying to support the district. (I personally prefer to avoid any tax rate increase on the few currently supporting the entire district plus out of district calls.) STEP 2. Recruit volunteers who would arrange regular fund raisers, ie: bake sales, rummage sales, car washes…whatever. Open to other ideas and suggestions. Concurrent with securing these immediate and short term solutions, begin pursuing longer term solutions, ie: STEP 3. Research and pursue making Pierce Ferry Rd. a toll road. In 2013 Grand Canyon West touted 700,000 tourists to the Skywalk! That number has likely increased substantially 4 years later; I haven’t been able to locate current data, but let’s say 1 million, for ease of calculation. A toll road charging $1 per person, with waivers for locals, would generate at least a Million $$ a year! Split with the County for road maintenance and waste, it would leave $500,000 for the LMRFD. “Can’t make a toll road out of an existing road”, I’ve been told. But, you CAN make it a toll road with such a simple change as a new approach, like maybe a safe crossing over or under Hwy 93 at the junction. It could be made to be compatible eventually with I-11. STEP 4. Concurrent with steps 1,2,and 3, begin lobbying for a County wide Fire District. It is ridiculous that we pay taxes for a County School District, whether or not we have kids in school, and for a County Library District, whether or not we ever use the library, but Districts within the County providing Fire and EMS services to their residents as well as to the County tourist and commercial traffic, must rely solely on a handful of piss poor retirees and disabled paying ever increasing taxes on their low value property in the middle of nowhere! More later…got someone at the gate!
Apologies for the interruption. Company is gone. I hope the first part of my reply made it to you explaining most of the “PLAN”. Regarding your comment, “Until this board gets a grip on reality, stops wasting my time on correcting typos in documents that SHOULD have been read by ALL board members PRIOR to the meeting”. It must be remembered that the Board Meetings are for the purpose of the Fire Board taking care of its business, and that is what it does, boring and time consuming as it may be. I did hear Charlotte request that they receive their info prior to the meeting so they have time to review it. It is not always possible, as they have to wait for other entities, ie: the County, attorneys, accountant, etc., to get reports to them. Sometimes those are delayed for one or another unavoidable reason. That’s life! Bottom line is, the Board Meetings are not held for the convenience of the public or anyone else. John Flynn spoiled everyone by stretching the open meeting laws significantly while he was Administrator, due to the extreme nature of the situation,( ie: threat of closure of the District), so that he could answer in detail the many questions the residents had. That is not the legal or usual way it is done. This Board is careful to follow the open meeting laws, as they have received proper training and are very aware of the legal ramifications of not doing so. They proceed with taking care of the business of keeping the District legal and solvent. The public has the right to attend, take notes, and record the meeting. The public does not have the right to speak unless the Board allows it, and then only relative to the items on the agenda. The questions/requests to the Board are to be presented in a respectful manner. I don’t know if you are aware that your demeanor is often combative and unreasonable. They just give up trying to communicate. For example, it is pointless to continually berate the Board for the condition of the website. It has been explained numerous times that the website is the Chief’s responsibility. The Board is responsible for governance; the Chief is responsible for Administrative matters. The website is an Administrative matter. Additionally, both the Board and the Chief are constrained in many matters by legalities. Some things that appear logical and reasonable in the private sector are illegal in a public funded entity. For example, volunteers. The Fire District cannot put volunteers in any position that paid personnel hold without having the same qualifications, training, background checks and ability to be insured. That is for everyone’s protection. No one I know of wants a substance impaired person showing up to stick a needle in their arm with potentially deadly drugs. We’re not talking lawn maintenance here, we’re talking people’s lives and property put at risk and the taxpayer’s $$ on the line for potential lawsuits. The Fire District liability insurance requires it as well. The liability insurance is extremely expensive even when following the rules. It would be unobtainable if there weren’t strict adherence to their requirements for screening and training personnel. Without liability insurance the Fire District ceases to exist. I hope this will help you to understand some of the “why’s” of things. One thing I have learned in dealing with government entities is that everything moves at a snails pace and one tiny little frustrating step at a time. That is why I have begun developing a multi step plan to address the LMRFD funding/staffing issues. There are many facets to the problem and many potential solutions. It must begin somewhere or it will never go anywhere. I’m for tackling the problem from all fronts at once, before the situation becomes critical again. And, yes, the ultimate goal is to achieve full time 2 on staff in Meadview with at least one of them a Paramedic. You have the ability and resources to be of assistance. Thanks for your time. Ellen
“Personally, I’m at the point where I’m thinking about trying to locate older medics looking to retire and maybe we can get some REAL medical help out here. Basically privatizing what LMRFD will likely never do for us — provide emergency care in a TIMELY manner.”
This is an interesting concept, and could provide at the very least, interim coverage while working to get LMRFD funding up to speed. The problem is not that “no one cares about Meadview”. I know for a fact that the opposite is true. There is just a shortage of personnel and shortage of $$ to pay personnel extra for working in Meadview. Nobody wants to drive all the way out there on their own dime. They need to be paid mileage, or Per Diem when working Meadview…something to compensate for the extra gas and time getting there. If you could find older medics willing to move out there to live, so much the better!
Ellen, I’m going to make a separate topic at the forum for the fire district and also will do a new post here. Been really busy, not only because of the storm and of course the County did NOT clear Charles.
For over a week I haven’t had internet and when the phone works, you can barely have a conversation because the static is so bad. It worked about 16 hours after they fixed it Monday and now I have a new ticket and they MIGHT fix it right next week.
Mohave County’s beloved mediocreness in action, with a national company like Frontier taking a FULL WEEK to schedule a repair and then fix it for 16 hours, and then schedule another visit another week later …
An hour for the ambulance, a week for phone repair, two weeks to fix the roads, if we’re lucky!
Anyone still wondering why so many people do NOTHING or prefer to do and deal drugs? The burner phones work.
Great! You have the means with your blog already in place to reach people to inform and educate them. That saves a lot of time and effort that would be wasted starting from scratch. Thanks!
I have lived in rural communities my entire life, and have found it is an ongoing lesson in patience. 😉
Another thing that could and should be done at the County level, is requiring that all new construction/development in the County, if within 10 miles of a Fire District, needs to be annexed into that district. I don’t know if that is being done currently. I wonder if the new Texaco station is in the LMRFD? It should be.