The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire Department History
Last updated 9/21/15 — please provide corrections or additional info in a comment below.
I’ve lived in the area since 2000, my property was NOT in the fire district and Meadview and Dolan Springs had separate fire departments. Occasionally I got letters from the Meadview Grapevine Mesa Fire District inviting me to subscribe to the fire district for (I think) about $200/year. I didn’t subscribe because that was twice my entire property tax, but occasionally I attended fundraisers (bbqs) for the fire department in Meadview.
I know several people who volunteered for the Meadview fire department. There was no red tape and pretty much anybody could volunteer. Around 2009 or so the Meadview fire department went through major changes resulting in extraordinary hostility between former and new employees / volunteers.
In (???) GMFD consolidated with the Dolan Springs Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District (LMRFD).
At the LMRFD website I found an unsigned document dated 3/14/15 titled Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District — Governance Options 2015: 3-14-15–LMRFD-Governance-Options
According to the document:
- LMRFD was insolvent by late 2012 and as of 2/6/13, LMRFD owed Wells Fargo $437,000 on a credit line and about $250,000 in other debt and employee back pay.
- The Mohave county supervisors appointed Administrator John Flynn ($6,700/month) and Fire Chief Patrick More ($4,700/month) to reorganize the LMRFD. I calculated the pay from the 1-2015–Personnel-Rates-Cost-Analysis and incredibly, this outrageous pay is for PART TIME work as both have OTHER jobs.
- Temporary funding (of course with interest) and oversight were to be provided by Mohave County.
Moore and Flynn decimated LMRFD, leaving Meadview with only ONE staff 24/7 (or no staff, according to posts at the Kingman Miner) and no ambulance. Dolan Springs is supposed to have 2 staff 24/7 and one ambulance to cover 2200 square miles.
Meadview residents usually drive themselves to the hospital or they get family / friends / neighbors to drive them. After someone at MM 26 on Pierce Ferry cut off a finger in July 2015, it allegedly took the ambulance about 45 minutes to get there from Dolan Springs and NOBODY gave any instructions on what to do with the severed finger. The finger was put on ice which the EMTs removed. According to the doctor at the hospital, the ice should have stayed. The finger could NOT be reattached.
Dolan Springs resident Jay Fleming posted lots of info and questions about the LMRFD at his blog:
Life and Death in Dolan Springs The Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District
Jay inspired me to look into the fire department issues and I’m grateful he has taken the time to point out the lack of procedures for the fire fighters, slow response times, absent defibrillators and many other problems with LMRFD.
As consolidation with Kingman’s Northern Arizona Consolidated Fire District (NACFD) is now being pushed by Moore, Flynn and Ellen (secretary / bookkeeper), it looks like Meadview has NO chance of a viable fire department and much more important, emergency medical services.
I have many problems with Administrator Flynn and Fire Chief Moore’s MISMANAGEMENT of LMRFD :
Why is the LMRFD website NOT maintained?
The LMRFD site was hacked due to the lack of CRITICAL security updates.
I advised Ellen that the LMRFD website had been hacked. She subsequently removed a Viagra link I had pointed out to her and she informed us that nobody had admin access to the official LMRFD WordPress website site since the fire district went bankrupt. The yet to be identified webmaster was apparently fired and failed to provide the password to Ellen or anyone else.
Not only have critical security updates not been installed, but much of the information at the website is incorrect, outdated and/or no longer applicable.
Apparently administrator Flynn couldn’t care less that LMRFD website visitors might be subjected to all sorts of malware and viruses such as key loggers that enable crooks to capture all your banking passwords and clean out you bank accounts. Mr. Flynn?
Who is the previous LMRFD webmaster?
Can he be reached to get the user name and password?
Does anyone know the admin user name and email account?
Why are so many properties in Meadview NOT in the fire district?
It is ABSURD!
Are calls from properties NOT in the fire district responded to?
I’ve heard many different answers. What is the current status?
What are the benefits of joining the fire district?
Your home owner’s insurance MIGHT not cover fire damage if you are not in the district. Anything else?
How can residents NOT in the fire district join?
Since not everybody has a good virus protection on their computers, I uploaded the form to join here:
9-21-15–LMRFD-Annexation-Request-Information-1
9-21-15–LMRFD-Annexation-Request-Form-1
I’m going to wait to join until we have a lot more info because I don’t think that you can leave again. I’m not really interested in joining the Kingman fire department with one guy out here. Might as well do without.
How can we ADD all properties to the fire district?
It makes no sense that one person pays property taxes to the fire district and the next door neighbor doesn’t.
What is the current revenue for properties in MEADVIEW?
What would the revenue be if ALL Meadview properties were in the fire district?
What is the current revenue for properties in Dolan Springs?
What would the revenue be if ALL Dolan Springs properties were in the fire district?
How many calls in Meadview the last two years?
I’d like to see a listing of all calls with a brief description and result (i.e. what action was taken).
How many calls in Dolan Springs the last two years?
I’d like to see a listing of all calls with a brief description and result (i.e. what action was taken).
What are the RESPONSE TIMES for Meadview calls?
How long does it take for the ambulance / fire truck to arrive at the scene?
What are the RESPONSE TIMES for Dolan Springs calls?
How long does it take for the ambulance / fire truck to arrive at the scene?
How many fire fighters / EMTs do we have on staff and where do they live?
There’s been a lot of talk about staff NOT living in the area and obviously not being familiar with Dolan Springs and Meadview roads. Maybe more important, if they don’t live where they work, they’re NOT available to be on call.
What are the PROCEDURES for fire fighters and EMTs?
Jay requested a manual and he finally received this document approved 10/1/2010:
Obviously, it refers to staff no longer available and makes no sense.
Apparently our firefighters and EMTs do whatever they want! While we pay HUGE amounts of money for PART TIME WORK by Chief Moore and Administrator Flynn, they apparently couldn’t care less what staff does and how they do it. More info is at Jay’s blog:
http://dolanemsproblems.blogspot.com/2015/09/id-rather-have-hill-billy-in-pickup.html
http://dolanemsproblems.blogspot.com/2015/09/no-standard-operating-procudures-for.html
http://dolanemsproblems.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-perfect-storm-fire-call-then.html
This is NO way to run a fire department and ambulance service!
What are the LEGAL requirements for volunteer fire fighters and EMTs?
I would assume that an EMT has to be certified. However, fire fighters are traditionally trained ON THE JOB and that’s how it SHOULD be in a small community like Meadview. The chief gets paid a salary in line with LOCAL wages and volunteers should get reimbursements for mileage and maybe get stipends.
I’ve read and heard a LOT about INSANE training costs and requirements such as having to pay for unemployment because VOLUNTEERS can later collect unemployment if they stop volunteering.
I’m looking for the actual legislation (ARS or whatever laws applies.)
How do I get copies of administrator John Flynn’s and Chief Moore’s contracts?
Based on the information currently available to me, I conclude that we are NOT getting what we pay for.
Why did the supervisors approve these outrageous salaries for part time SUB STANDARD work?