Fire Protection Upgrade Needed

[ponto]

Congratulations to Bob DeVoe, on his recent retirement. He has done such a great job upgrading the solid waste problems of Mason County, some have been thinking…..

What if we had someone with his vision and management skills to solve the county wide fire protection problem.

He solved the mandated county wide garbage collection problem with new trucks and services and built a first class operation.

Now let’s work on a 1st class county wide fire protection.

With the recent news of the fire in Dover, it seems we should have as much invested in county wide fire fighting as we do in county wide garbage collection.

New trucks, new services, training, and all this using an all volunteer work force.

The volunteer firefighters do a great job, let’s get them some newer equipment.

.

[csweet]

I am a member and officer of the Dover Volunteer Fire Dept. I would first like to say thank you for your article. As many know, Dover has 3 trucks, the newest vehicle is 20 yrs old. We just got turned down again for a fema grant to get a new truck, instead the goverment thought that other depts in the state of kentucky needed it more then we did, they only recieved a grant last year for a new truck, a new building to hold their truck, money for turn out gear, etc. Bobby Money has worked his rear off in helping us with our grant and we appreciate it very much, we will also ask Bobby to help us again to fill out grants, because this is the only way Dover will be able to afford a decent truck due to finacial matters. Every year the first of January I sent out donation letters to the comunity of Dover and surrounding rural area that we cover, I also send to local industries and businesses. Of the 350 some letters I send out, there may be approximetly $700.00 recieved back and the most of that comes from the industries. I know everyone has hard times, but people need to realize if we dont have fire protection, our insurance goes through the roof which is going to be alot more then giving $25 or $50. We dont want to have to charge for our services, because we love our comunity and the people in it.
Other departments from the county has bent over backwards in helping us in anything we need. Fernleaf backs us up in case we have a structure fire and they was right there when we needed them on the Hillbilly Haven fire, and we appreciate Chief Lucas and his fire fighters very much. We also want to thank from the bottom of our hearts Eric Bach and Jeff Brammer for everything they have done for us, Special thanks to Jeff, he is always there when we call, he is our trainning instuctor and does an excellent job.
There is a rumor going around about the Hillbilly Haven fire, and I would like to set the record straight. The building was already in flames when we arrived. The smoke was very thick. We had the fire knocked down to just one small corner of the building until someone opened up the back door, which in turn the air fueled the fire and it went completely up in flames when it did that. We had a huge problem with spectators getting in our way stopping us from doing our job, We could hear the heavy logs cracking, we knew the ceiling could go at any minute. We shouldnt have had to tell several people to get away and stay back, but unfortuntely we did several times, which made our job a lot harder. We are doing the best we can, we cant do that when we are fighting a fire and people standing around with no trainning and no knowledge of what they are doing. We just ask you please do as asked and let us do what we have been trained for years to do.
Im sorry the dog lost its life, but the smoke from the fire and the fumes from the burning plastics and other materials is what killed the dog, not the flames, The dog was hidden between two panels and no way out, and the fire fighters has no clue of how or what was inside the building. We knew he was gone when we was told there was a dog in there and we called for her and she never came out. Our hearts goes out to Mr. Mitchell because all of us on the dept. are animal lovers also.
In two weeks I will be sending out donation letters again to the comunity, we will see how this article, the articles in the Ledger and word of mouth helps. If you are intrested in becoming a member of the dept. we would love to have you, just contact a member and they will be gladly to help.

Please keep our fire fighters in your prayers and thoughts as we are fighting something everyone else runs from. We risk our lives to help others, when we leave that warm bed at 3 am, we kiss our loved ones because they also know there may be a chance we wont be coming home alive.

God Bless,
Cheryl Sweet
sec./treas.

[Eddie]

Congratulations to Bob DeVoe, on his recent retirement. He has done such a great job upgrading the solid waste problems of Mason County, some have been thinking…..

What if we had someone with his vision and management skills to solve the county wide fire protection problem.

He solved the mandated county wide garbage collection problem with new trucks and services and built a first class operation.

Now let’s work on a 1st class county wide fire protection.

With the recent news of the fire in Dover, it seems we should have as much invested in county wide fire fighting as we do in county wide garbage collection.

New trucks, new services, training, and all this using an all volunteer work force.

The volunteer firefighters do a great job, let’s get them some newer equipment.

.
I've been a firefighter, EMT and instructor for several years. I've been in house fires, barn fires, warehouse fires. I've been to more wrecks and medical calls than I care to have seen. So I think I have a little knowledge regarding the fire service and especially the volunteer services in and around Mason County. With all that said, here's the biggest area we could improve in, just in my view.
The whole concept with separating fire stations in and around the county should be changed. What I mean is this, In Mason County there are numerous volunteer stations, filled with, in my opinion some of the best people you'll ever meet. I consider these men and women my brothers and sisters, and love them all dearly. So I hope none take offense to my thoughts.
For those of you who may not be familiar here's how it works. The county is basically divided into communities. Departments are assigned coverage areas, based on their location, so if there's a wreck or fire in an area, that department is paged out to the event. Where the problem comes in, is with the smaller departments who may struggle with coverage during daytime hours when members are at work, holidays or weekends. If you want to improve fire protection in Mason County, there should be one system, which when a page is set off, all members respond. In other words, a member from Orangeburg should be allowed to respond to any area within the county to assist and the same for any other department. There should be one Mason County Volunteer fire/rescue department instead of 8. There is in some cases, a lot of resentment between local departments, which prevents them from calling for mutual aid when it may be needed.
The Mason County Volunteer department would be under the direction of the Maysville paid department, which would provide training and protocol. This would assure consistency throughout the county, improved response times, and better service. Being such a drastic change from the system we have today, there would be a lot of logistical questions to be addressed, but this system would/could work.
The biggest issue with this is state funding, which is based by department. Instead of each department receiving grant monies, there would be only one large department, so stated funding could fall off some. But if you combined the resources, knowledge, and members throughout the Mason County area, you would have one heck of a department.

Just my view, probably wrong, but something to think about.

[ponto]

Your thoughts are good ones, and I would like for everyone to hear from others.

A lot of conversations occur in this area because of small groups working in different directions for the same goal.

I could site Downtown, Old Washington, Tourism, Local Media, Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Development, City and County Governments, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Agri-Business and 5 or 10 more special interest groups.

When Lexington and Louisville had the same growth problems many years ago, they each chose different legal means to solve the problem.

One chose an Urban County Government (http://www.lrc.ky.gov/KRS/067A00/CHAPTER.HTM) and the other chose to try a County Metro Government (http://www.answers.com/topic/consolidated-city-county).

Each plan has it's good points, and Maysville should consider both.

I don't think we can grow in harmony until ONE of these two plans are adopted and force the different factions to work together.

This is an issue that the voters, "that be you", can control.

As time passes, and future elections come in to play, it may be time to form a grass roots effort to explore these options.

If you are interested in pursuing this, let me know. Maybe we could start an informal fact gathering group to put this before the County in 2008.

If not, then so be it.................Maysville and Mason County will continue to grow and have more problems with or without your involvement.

If you have read all the way to this sentence, you should take action, you are already involved.

[Eddie]

Your thoughts are good ones, and I would like for everyone to hear from others.

A lot of conversations occur in this area because of small groups working in different directions for the same goal.

I could site Downtown, Old Washington, Tourism, Local Media, Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Development, City and County Governments, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Agri-Business and 5 or 10 more special interest groups.

When Lexington and Louisville had the same growth problems many years ago, they each chose different legal means to solve the problem.

One chose an Urban County Government (http://www.lrc.ky.gov/KRS/067A00/CHAPTER.HTM) and the other chose to try a County Metro Government (http://www.answers.com/topic/consolidated-city-county).

Each plan has it's good points, and Maysville should consider both.

I don't think we can grow in harmony until ONE of these two plans are adopted and force the different factions to work together.

This is an issue that the voters, "that be you", can control.

As time passes, and future elections come in to play, it may be time to form a grass roots effort to explore these options.

If you are interested in pursuing this, let me know. Maybe we could start an informal fact gathering group to put this before the County in 2008.

If not, then so be it.................Maysville and Mason County will continue to grow and have more problems with or without your involvement.

If you have read all the way to this sentence, you should take action, you are already involved.

I would be interested Ponto, but I can tell you, there would be very little or no support from the county volunteer departments. Most do not have a real good working relationship with each other.
It's not that the current system is broken, but I do think there's a lot of room for improvement.

[tkcomer]

Ya know, I don't like taxes anymore than anyone else, but this is one area that needs to be addressed. My donation to the Lewisburg Fire Department isn't a drop in the bucket to what they need. Some of the pitiful equipment these departments are forced to use is well, dangerous to them at the very least. Just to save our behinds. But lets say we did get a minuscule tax, because most people won't tolerate much. How would you divide that up amongst the departments? Who would be willing to “means test” to decide who needed what? This is kinda a sore spot with me. The firemen need help. Donations ain't cutting it.

[Eddie]

Ya know, I don't like taxes anymore than anyone else, but this is one area that needs to be addressed. My donation to the Lewisburg Fire Department isn't a drop in the bucket to what they need. Some of the pitiful equipment these departments are forced to use is well, dangerous to them at the very least. Just to save our behinds. But lets say we did get a minuscule tax, because most people won't tolerate much. How would you divide that up amongst the departments? Who would be willing to “means test” to decide who needed what? This is kinda a sore spot with me. The firemen need help. Donations ain't cutting it.

TK it's good to hear someone speak up for us. Usually the only thing we hear is a negative comment, such as "why weren't you here faster", or something else. It does take a lot more money than people realize, just to stay afloat. With the price of fuel, gear, heating the buildings, it really adds up. What a lot of folks don't see is in addition to the time the voly's put in, being on a volunteer department actually cost each member a few bucks each year. These guys and girls use their own vehicles, gas, and a lot of them buy their own gear.
Any help people can give to their local department is greatly needed.

[tkcomer]

I'm not sure the “powers that be” are going to go for an urban county government or a county metro government. Someone would lose their position and power and I bet they would rather see the county burn up than give that up. The amount of money “given” to us in the form of beautification projects tells me that government officials are using our tax money, well, at the very least, not wisely. Basic infrastructure is far more important to me. Fire, police and rescue services are far more important to me than being taxed to save someone's idea of a landmark. I really don't want to see a “district” type of tax. Some areas have a higher population than others. A county wide tax would be more appropriate. But I sure wouldn't want to be in charge dividing that money up.