You may have heard that LMRFD is going to put on the ballot the annexation of ALL Meadview and Lake Mead City properties into the fire district.
I expected the board to do this IMMEDIATELY after they were elected last year. They did NOTHING. Several times I brought the issue up at the monthly board meetings and finally they decided to move ahead.
However, even with ALL of Meadview in the district we will NOT have 2 staff at all times in Meadview.
Additionally, the fire board has been a GIANT disappointment.
They refused my offer to VOLUNTEER to secure and update their website and to set up a subscription button for a mailing list so that residents could get an email with the reminders for board meetings and election and LMRFD news, etc.
Steve Berg finally resigned, but Charlotte Kieffer is at least as reckless as Berg, former Meadview fire chief when our wonderful Grapevine Mesa Fire District went BANKRUPT and they made the awful choice to consolidate with Dolan, leaving us in this dire situation with no emergency medical services.
LMRFD EMTs are to request credit card information prior to patient transports.
LMRFD board member Charlotte Kieffer (Dolan Springs) decided that we need to increase revenue by taking CREDIT CARD information prior to ambulance transports. Bobby Porzio (Meadiew) vehemently spoke up AGAINST this CRAZY idea and I totally agree with him.
Chief DeMaio stated that he researched ambulances services taking credit card info and he only found one: in South Africa. Other board members had looked into it, found nothing.
The STUPIDITY!
Not only is it unethical to ask for payment from people with EMERGENCY medical conditions and the EMTs will likely be uncomfortable asking for a credit card (I would QUIT!), but the first ID theft lawsuit will probably bankrupt LMRFD. Or maybe patients will sue for the STRESS caused when they were asked about payment. Many Meadview people are not wealthy and the thought of having to PAY for the ambulance ride will stress them and could even add to their medical problems.
Maybe a patient will die due to the delays caused by the request for credit card info.
Charlotte Kieffer insisted on going ahead with this stupid idea and they’re actually paying a lawyer for research!
I can’t remember when the board voted on this, but NONE of the board members opposed this giant waste of money on Monday. I’m SO disappointed!
The decline in ambulance revenue.
It’s been mentioned several times at board meetings that the ambulance calls are DOWN.
Any reasonable person would immediately analyze the calls to try to determine what’s happening. MANY Meadview medical emergencies DRIVE THEMSELVES (or are driven by family/friends/neighbors) to the hospital.
Any reasonable person would conclude that action must be taken to instill more confidence in LMRFD.
But our fire board couldn’t care less, refuses to invite the public to meetings and outright refuses to provide relevant info at lmrfd.org. Instead, the board now focuses on collecting the VERY LOW 17% or so of unpaid ambulance bills (likely due to Obamacare).
However, the delinquent bills will NOT be collected through credit card info obtained prior to transport because they can only charge the credit cards AFTER billing AND AFTER receiving authorization to charge the card! So IF someone wants the bill to be charged to their credit card, they could provide the info when they are billed and there is absolutely no need to ask for that info prior to transport.
All this proves that LMRFD is NOT the solution for Meadview.
Meadview needs to look into forming an “emergency medical” district instead of annexing all of Meadview to LMRFD. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but we really don’t need fire services — every time there’s a big accident I see Kingman, Golden Valley, etc. up here.
Meadview needs to decide what’s important:
A big fire truck?
Or EMTs who will actually provide emergency medical services, live in Meadview, know the roads and know the people.
I’ll be posting a lot more info on LMRFD and the election. I recently had NO internet / phone for 3 weeks over a 4 week period with 3 Frontier tickets, each with a 5 to 7 day wait for repairs that failed within hours or days. This is 21st century America. Are the right wing nuts right about Agenda 21?
If the people of Meadview do not step up and take back their town, its decline will continue until only druggies and thieves will want to live here.
It’s YOUR choice!
My email to LMRFD chief Tony Demaio:
9/20/17
Hi Tony,
I left a check for $25 with Victoria as a down payment for the following records:
1) Incident reports for all MEADVIEW calls, both fire and medical, since 7/1/16.
IMPORTANT: I need READABLE documents, so obviously please don’t print scanned records out so that I have to scan them again. I much prefer emailed docs anyway.2) The invoices for legal services you’re sending to the board members.
3) I’d also like a summary with all calls, separating Meadview and Dolan Springs and fire and medical, with subtotals by month.
This isn’t an effort to annoy you and waste your time, but people in Meadview are DYING because we don’t have emergency medical services.
I’m perplexed by the board’s indifference to the decline in ambulance revenue and I’ll be asking the public to assist with analyzing the data and figuring out how to save lives in Meadview.
We need to come up with SOLUTIONS and LMRFD obviously isn’t even trying. Once again, bringing emergency medical services to Meadview was not mentioned at Monday’s meeting.
The never ending STUPID ideas such as taking credit card info from ill or injured patients prior to transporting them will create nothing but hostility. And the first ID theft lawsuit is likely going to bankrupt the district — the only district outside South Africa to take credit card info.
After well over a year with the new board, there is NO plan whatsoever to provide timely medical service to Meadview residents and we may just have to hire retiring EMTs and purchase some basic equipment — we have plenty of vacant nice houses up here.
Regarding annexation of all of Meadview.
Ellen didn’t give me the docs she provided to you. Is there an FAQ with answers to questions such as:
Do district members get priority medical or fire services?
What exactly are Meadview residents to do when someone is suffering a heart attack or stroke?
Call 911 and then wait 45 minutes or two hours?
We have one resident who got to the hospital quickly (wife drove him) and he’s recovering from a stroke quite well, unlike the man who died when it took hours to get him to the hospital. Every minute counts after a stroke!
What if someone saws off a few fingers?
Should they call 911 and then wait 45 minutes or two hours?
One of our residents preserved a sawed off finger on ice, it took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive on Patterson Grade MP 26 and they threw the ice water on the finger away. The surgeon could NOT reattach the finger.
Can residents request a helicopter to be flown to Vegas? That’s especially important with the constant awful KRMC ratings, infections and many people not wanting to go to KRMC.
Can residents meet an ambulance along the way to Kingman? How are communications between patients and EMTs handled?
I’ve heard horror stories of 911 refusing to connect patients with EMTs.
As I’m NOT a frequent flier, I have no idea how this works. And that’s astounding, considering the EXTRAORDINARY efforts I made to attend the monthly board meetings. LMRFD has done absolutely NOTHING to increase our survival rate.
And of course I have been unable to find any useful info at all at LMRFD.org, there’s still no way for residents to find info on board meetings, services and procedures.
I now have a local 17-year old’s cell # on my fridge and in a serious medical emergency that’ll be my first call. I know he might be in school or at work or just doing whatever 17-year olds do, but he’s our best chance of surviving until the “real” emergency people eventually show up — if they ever find my house and don’t get stuck along the way on impassable roads, as they are NOT local and don’t know which roads are impassable.
We need LOCAL EMTs to increase our chances of survival or having a finger preserved so it can be reattached — someone to tell people what to do until the ambulance or helicopter get here.
I remember the days when Meadview VOLUNTEERS actually answered the 911 calls. We’ve had many good people up here and Meadview could pay retiring EMTs to LIVE here. Meadview cannot afford to pay for LMRFD and its EMTs at $80k/ea and 7 are required for full staffing of the Meadview station.
Having one guy SOMETIMES at the fire station is a huge waste of money. The Meadview station could be used to store medical supplies, etc. We don’t need a fire truck up here, especially with only one guy being up here, sometimes.
We’ll analyze the call volume as well as the types of calls so that Meadview property owners can make an INFORMED vote on the annexation of the properties NOT in the district now.
This bizarre situation might actually benefit Meadview, as the property owners not in the LMRFD district now could form their own district just for medical emergencies in Meadview.
Additional info is posted at https://highdesertdirt.com/blog/2017/09/20/open-letter-to-lmrfd-and-voting-on-the-annexation-of-all-of-meadview/ and I’ll appreciate distribution of this email to all board members.
Much appreciate your help!
Christine
Hi Christine. Just want to clarify, the LMRFD is NOT putting on the ballot the annexation of all of Meadview and LMC. There is a lot of leg work to be done yet before that goes on a ballot. What I passed out at the meeting was a flyer (only for the Board’s approval, so I didn’t prepare to pass any out to the public) requesting volunteers to assist with that and other projects to get the funding we need to put personnel in Meadview. Since only 1/3 of the properties in the area pay to support the LMRFD, it seems that annexing the remainder in is a good place to start. What the Board is putting on the ballot is raising the tax rate temporarily to pay for the new ambulance. I am working with the Alternative Funding Committee in pursuit of other sources of funding than raising taxes. Also, I updated the “Tax Revenue and Personnel Cost Analysis” I passed out at the August meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the tax collection rate has increased and the updated version reflects that change. Unfortunately, even at 100% collection rate, based on the County’s assessed values for properties in the Meadview and LMC area, there isn’t sufficient revenue to pay even ONE full time FF/EMT, let alone, utilities, maintenance, etc. The LMRFD management obviously cares about the Meadview citizenry or they would not be working so hard to keep the station doors open there. They would do as NACFD did to Chloride and just shut it down. Unfortunately, their best efforts to fund a person in Meadview is thwarted by nobody wanting to work there. Cannot pay them enough to drive the extra distance. A community effort to generate income and volunteers is an excellent idea!
Thanks for the clarification, Ellen, like with most LMRFD issues, I really don’t have a clue what’s going on despite my extraordinary efforts and that’s why I just requested all these records.
So I’m hoping that I’ll continue to have internet, last time it worked for a few days, but it’s been over a week now, so I’m hopeful.
I still have to do a ton of work on the new forum and that’s where I’d like to see as much info as possible about the proposed tax increase and possible Meadview solutions.
If you email me docs, I’ll post them here too.
I do have some documents I would like to submit for possible inclusion here. I don’t have your email address.
Ellen, please send to christine@highdesertdirt.com
Well, if I am paying the liability insurance, I would be very concerned about an 85 year old woman doing CPR or lifting a patient, etc. It is a very physically demanding profession, with serious potential risks to both provider and patient. I have seen young, strong, healthy guys injured giving care…twisted knees, strained backs…and I’ve read of EMS personnel expiring in the process of doing CPR. That said, the guidelines to qualify as a volunteer EMT for the LMRFD are the same as those for paid personnel, and do not include being a firefighter, as gossip has it.
Ellen, ” A community effort to generate income and volunteers is an excellent idea!”
As per LMRFD guidelines, no volunteer can qualify and that’s one more reason to have a SEPARATE district for Meadview.
Would you care whether the 85-year old woman doing CPR can run a mile, or three, or whatever the stupid requirements are?
Something beats nothing.
Sorry…my reply ended up on the previous comment.
Here it is:
Ellen, you’re right about EMTs having to do hard work. However, I really resent that OUR LIVES revolve around and might be taken by greedy insurance companies. Just the other day saw a posting with the Arizona law about NO liability for people wanting to help [paraphrasing.] Screw the insurance companies!
Either the feds, the state or the county (i.e. the government) pay for “qualified” EMTs or they can take a flying leap with their idiotic regulations. We DESERVE to live!
With respect to CPR, it is hard to do, but I STILL rather have the 85-year old woman than NOBODY. And if she can somehow get to my spice cabinet with her walker, she most likely won’t have to do CPR as the cayenne pepper will save my life again.
What counts is HELP, ANY HELP — instead of leaving patients to die with nobody or a bunch of hysterical people who don’t know what to do.
If the 85-year old woman knows her stuff, she can tell a younger and stronger neighbor/friend/family member how to do it.
So I stand by this, I’m so done with regulations killing people!
“That said, the guidelines to qualify as a volunteer EMT for the LMRFD are the same as those for paid personnel, and do not include being a firefighter, as gossip has it”
Going to look at and post your docs and hopefully I won’t have to ask my next question 🙂
It’s true, regulations are strangling everyone from individuals to businesses. However, that issue must be addressed at a higher level than the LMRFD. The Fire District is forced to comply or be fined/dissolved…with potential for individuals employed or serving on the Board, not complying being held personally responsible with fines and prosecution. The vitriol needs to be aimed at those who have power to change the regulations, not those struggling to do their best to provide life saving services, within the stifling confines of regulations. BTW, the annexation of Meadview properties not currently in the FD, has been ongoing for awhile. It is a long, drawn out, time consuming process. I have begun the process, but have had no assistance from anyone other than Board members, to carry it on.
Actually, I misspoke. I did not “begin” the process, I picked up from where the Board had already begun, and began carrying on. We need help with it. None of us have the time it takes to do it alone.
“However, that issue must be addressed at a higher level than the LMRFD.”
And what has LMRFD DONE to address these issues at a higher level?
Regarding the annexation, maybe this was done during meetings I missed. Do you have a link to the minutes regarding the annexation?
Actually, it isn’t the LMRFD management’s responsibility to pursue changes in legislation and in fact it may not even be legal for them to do so. The Board’s responsibility is to oversee the financial and legal health of the District and to ensure that open meeting laws are followed. The Chief’s responsibility is day to day operations. Changes to government regulations come from citizens and groups of citizens contacting and lobbying their representatives.
One more reason NOT to be part of LMRFD.
How exactly would a citizen lobby for something they know nothing about?
It is a citizen’s responsibility to educate themselves as to the workings of their government. It is a citizen’s responsibility to research issues they care about and learn how they might work within a legal framework to make changes.
Regarding annexation, I don’t recall if discussions about it were ever on the agenda or included in minutes. Similar to asking for a tax rate hike, annexing Meadview properties is one of those “spitting in the wind” kind of pursuits that needs to be done but doesn’t hold much promise of producing results, given the negative attitudes towards it. Discussions about the ins and outs resulted in persons affiliated with the Board doing some fact finding, and the results were not promising. It is a HUGE undertaking that should not fall upon the Board or any individual to do. Rather, the community most harmed by the loss of revenue caused by 2/3 of the value of properties in their area NOT being in the fire district needs to be involved. That is why I volunteered to “get the ball rolling”. I have completed a few things on the checklist and am campaigning for volunteers (preferably from Meadview area) to help. I will not attempt to do it all myself. I will send you the entire 6 page process for annexation. The one page “Boundary Change Impact Statement” I passed out at August’s meeting is, as I explained then, just the first TINY step in the process. Who is going to go around to Meadview and LMC property owners with a petition to get signatures to put the annexation on the ballot? It will need to “be signed by owners of more than one-half of the taxable property units within the boundaries of the proposed change and be signed by persons owning collectively more than one-half of the assessed valuation of the property within the boundaries of the proposed change.”
Just posted your docs and I still do have my question:
“That said, the guidelines to qualify as a volunteer EMT for the LMRFD are the same as those for paid personnel, and do not include being a firefighter, as gossip has it”
I’m about as sick of gossip as it gets. But also have been unable to find any official reports, summaries, news, etc. from LMRFD. Today, Victoria told me that the records request once was on the website, but no longer. WHY WHY WHY??????
So my question right now is what the EMT qualifications are. Maybe you have a link? I’m so done wasting my time at the LMRFD website.
Hi Christine,
Volunteer or paid EMT it is the same training. It`s a few months course including book work and hands on training, a shift in the ER, written and practical exams (hands on) final exams. A physical is required. People who had their training out of state may have to re-certify. The ER shift may have changed but I doubt it. As far as fire trucks go. Our brush truck and water tender were very useful. Each EMT was sponsored by a Meadview resident. There used to be a First Responder course but that was discontinued years ago.
Hi Cathy, thanks for the info and Ellen also sent me docs I still have to post — next week, been so busy.
The problem is of course that EXPERIENCE counts for so much and we should have some retiring EMTs or nurses pairing up with new people.
“Our brush truck and water tender were very useful.”
What is a brush truck?
“Each EMT was sponsored by a Meadview resident.”
How did that work and who organized it?
I don`t know who organized the sponser program. It was a great recuiting tool for volunteers. A brush truck is small, 4wd with a pump, hose and hand tools to fight brush fires.
I suppose the sponsor program went away like all good happenings in Meadview.
I’m so fed up with the cliques destroying Meadview. Gladys Burk and Karen Podolak Stacy IMMEDIATELY shut down any attempt at any community event and I really hope I’ll have time to sue the MCA into oblivion next year:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/640301882835314/permalink/699687210230114/
I saw a link to the records request on the website just yesterday while looking for this year’s budget. I will see what I have for EMT qualifications. Been out of the loop at the LMRFD Admin for months, but doubt it has changed much, if at all. Gotta go harvest sweet potatoes right now…will check in later.
Never mind…went and looked. The link is there but goes nowhere. They had somebody work on the website recently. Hope he isn’t done with it.
Thanks for looking, Ellen! And this is exactly why I don’t want Meadview to be part of LMRFD.
Well, nobody’s perfect. We live out here 50 miles (80 miles for you?) from a town of any size in a fire district of low value properties, populated largely by retired, disabled, and indigent persons, many bumping along on the bottom just one bump away from homelessness. I love it here. I can afford to live comfortably here whereas probably could not elsewhere. I am glad to have even a pretense of a fire district to help my little town retain a grocery store and a gas station so I don’t have to drive 50 miles for those services. Have you polled the residents and businesses of Meadview and area to see how having the pretense of a fire district affects their fire insurance? I’d be curious what their insurance availability would be if the nearest pretense of a fire dept. was 80 miles away instead of 30.
I think it’s a total NON issue. The Meadview fire station was CLOSED for how many years?
I think 3. We had stores the entire time.
And I should add that nobody would be happier than me if that Dollar store closed.
When I worked in the office at the LMRFD, I frequently got calls from insurance companies wanting to know if a particular property was in our fire district. If it was in Whitehills the answer was “no it is not in any fire district”. The agent invariably had a negative comment. Few if any properties in Whitehills have fire insurance. Relative to queried properties that WERE in the LMRFD, the agents responded positively when they learned that we were a full time paid dept rather than a volunteer dept., with a rating of 8B. During the period of time the LMRFD was recovering from insolvency, it retained its rating and still qualified as a full time paid dept. There wasn’t any re-classifying of the district during that period, so it is unlikely that there would be any negative impact on anyone’s fire insurance. If the Fire District is totally gone, it would be another story, eventually, …like Whitehills.
Ellen, that just goes to show how completely WORTHLESS these ratings are.
How did your calls about Meadview properties go? Did you tell them the station was closed?
Fortunately, didn’t get any insurance calls during that period…maybe because there wasn’t anyone in the office to answer the phone. 😉