Thursday, March 28, 2024

Manson Fire commissioners, Chelan Emergency Medical Services meet

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MANSON – Fire District 5 (CCFD 5) commissioners met, Tuesday, Feb. 13, discussing a variety of agenda items for their regular monthly meeting.
Previously, address changes for the Manson area had been discussed, explained Fire Chief Arnold Baker. One residence, in particular, had been strongly opposed to the address changes and issued a letter to the county requesting them to leave addresses unaffected in the area. In response to the letter, Chelan County staff redirected the letter to Baker, who made contact with the resident. “I wrote back and pleaded with him to please put up with the troubles of going through an address change,” explained Baker. After some debate, the Manson resident resistently agreed. Shortly after the conversations, a call from the residence was made to RiverCom. Upon dispatch, emergency response services had “a heck of a time finding his place,” explained Baker, “so, he writes this letter. And now I get it … I’m all in on no addresses changes so that you guys can find them … everything I had said, it happened to him, and I get it now.” He continued to discuss the unique issues that Manson residences have, especially factoring in emergency responders that aren’t familiar with the area, “they don’t know all those driveways and little, tight spaces, so we’re betting on the iSpy app on our phones to find it,” he expressed. Medical Services Officer (MSO) Kurt Middleton with Chelan Emergency Medical Services (CEMS) expressed that “one thing that’s always good to say is if you can’t see your address, neither can we.” This makes people think, he explained. When people are pulling up to their houses, is their address visible? If the address isn’t posted, he advised, no one really knows where it is at times. The best advice to ensure prompt arrival time for responders is to make sure that your address is visible and easily identified.
Moving into the EMS Report, Middleton introduced himself to chiefs and commissioners. “We’re (CEMS MSOs) going to be greatly helping with operations,” he explained, stating that he will begin sitting in on the fire meetings in place of EMS Director Ray Eickmeyer, allowing the director to focus on larger projects and bigger picture things.
Prior to the adjournment of the meeting, Chief Baker opened a bid received for the replacement of the cab-chassis on the department’s International truck. The bid had been sent from RWC Group, and included two proposals. The first proposal was for the medium-duty series offered by the group and started at approximately $93,000 before taxes, and fees. The next proposal, for the heavy-duty series, began around $82,000 before taxes and fees. “They’re both 350 Cummings (engines), identical engines … it’s actually frame rails” that’s different between the two, explained Baker. Fire commissioners approved moving forward on the bids, and the department will accept and proceed into either the medium duty or heavy-duty chassis’ dependent on which has the quicker build time. “This is fantastic,” expressed Baker.
CCFD 5 Manson Fire Commissioners meet every second Tuesday of the month, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at Station 51 on Manson Boulevard. The next meeting is Tuesday, March 13.

Manson, fire, meetings, EMS, safety

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