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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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. 😉