Fire Safety is a huge concern for people across the nation

 

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay 

 

Fire Safety is a huge concern for people across the nation. 

Whether one lives in a huge city with a fully staffed fire department or a small rural area with a minimum staff and a huge volunteer fire department, having the equipment plus training is an absolute necessity for everyone.

The Arkansas Fire Training Academy is the official fire training institution for the state of Arkansas. The main campus is located on the grounds of Southern Arkansas University Tech in Camden, Arkansas. The Academy offers both in-house and remote training with certification for firefighters.

Small rural communities face challenges; Fire trucks fully equipped, trained personnel and water.  

In the small rural community of Holiday Island the fire department is operated by the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID). 

In 2023, the HISID board of commissioners (BOC) faced the challenge of a huge upgrade in its fleet of fire trucks and equipment. 

Years of neglect or just "kick it down the road mentality" roared NOW!
A former Fire Chief was straight forward upon arrival accessing the inadequate department. The replacement Fire Chief had all his notes and presented the same conclusion. 

A preliminary evaluation for the upcoming end-of-the-year ISO rating drove the community to insist on taking action.  

"An ISO fire rating is a score provided to fire departments and insurance companies by the Insurance Services Office (ISO). The score reflects how prepared a community and area is for fires." Bank Rate

Within six months, four fire trucks, new fire hoses plus equipment for each truck, necessary equipment for a water rescue boat, radios, tires, uniforms, etc. with a spending of nearly $300K in a six month time period. This was a necessary expense for the Health and Safety of not only the community but, the surrounding communities that depend on mutual aide.

Once the proper fire fighting vehicles and equipment were at the community fire stations, the recruitment began and continues.

The local community, Holiday Island Fire Department (HIFD) currently includes a Fire Chief and three shift commanders consisting of an Assistant Chief and two Lieutenants. All are certified Firefighter 2 (FF2) and interior firefighting qualified.

The HIFD part-time firefighters consists of nine interior qualified firefighters, which is a significant increase of eight interior qualified firefighters in the last six months. 

The volunteer staff totals 25 personnel that includes two interior certified firefighters, two driver/operators, and 13 exterior firefighters and eight fire fighting support volunteers.

When asked How is the Health of the Fire Department currently?
District Manager Danny Presley replied, "The overall health of the HIFD is good in many aspects, however, HIFD needs more volunteers who are willing and able to meet the physical demands and rigorous training required for interior firefighting. We understand the commitment that is required of volunteers but, without the participation of younger volunteers, our goals are more difficult to achieve."

Chief Ates contact info is located at the HIFD website page.

"As an elder, giving support to younger citizens places my stories into the position of the Mentor and Storyteller" Circle the Wagons 

Holiday Island Needs a Fire Truck

 

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay 

Arkansas does have one of the finest Open Meeting Laws in the Nation and yet, the community this article is concerning has years of difficulty understanding "How It Works."

The previous article, Smoke & Mirrors, intros into a "Special Meeting" called by the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) board of commissioners (BOC) on Monday, March 20, 2023. 

The Creekside News Journal (CNj) received the mandatory two hour notification by phone for this Special Meeting. It was later that CNj became aware that HISID had sent email notifications to the public at large. Upon arrival to this meeting, the meeting had an agenda and was conducted as a "Regular Meeting."

With a public comment section, one individual, new to the neighborhood, participated in this section to state interest in learning about the neighborhood.

This editor, also a resident, inquired about a line item printed on a submission included in the Tax Assessment Statement indicating a pay-off amount for AOB.

The District Manager (Danny Presley) and the Chair (Pat Sarratt) stated they could not comment on that topic. 

So, for the record, CNj announced that this was a "Special Meeting" being conducted as a regular session meeting. 

Fire Chief Ates gave a short presentation about a used 2007 E-ONE Typhoon Fire Truck
that is offered For Sale through Bradford Fire Apparatus.

There are exchanges between the Fire Chief and District Manager regarding email info. 
The Fire Chief took a mechanic with him to view the truck.
(CNj has receipts for that trip.) 

Discussion regarding how fortunate for the district that this truck is available that there are not other trucks available. 

(CNj does have a rather long list of other brokers selling this year and model truck.)

The BOC spent approximately an hour talking about the fire department and insurance but NOT the specifics of the truck, which was to be the "Special Meeting" topic. 

CNj got a few questions in with answers during the second comment section.
The purchase of the truck will include an engine replacement.
Hoses not included.
The odometer reading was known but not the hours of service for this truck.

 
Some points CNj was not allowed time to ask due to a comment section time restraint:

The engine replacement, a Cummins but, some of these engines have been recalled by the government and there are other issues including a flow issue. Details?
Exactly whom is the One Year warranty with for this truck purchase?
The truck is a Diesel.
Will it take off-road diesel or need to go to the White Oak Station to be filled?

Will it fit there?
One point that the Fire Chief questions: "Will it fit in Station #1?"
Why did he not know this?

According to Bradford Fire Apparatus the measurements for a 2007 E-ONE Typhoon Fire Truck: Length 33' 4"   Height 9' 4"   Width 8' 4"

The HISID BOC approved the purchase of this truck.
The HISID BOC canceled the regular business meeting for March 27, 2023, simply because the District Manager would be out of town. 

Smoke & Mirrors

Video by Attila Pergel from Pixabay 

The Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) located in Northwest Arkansas is governed by five elected board of commissioners (BOC), whose oath of office binds them to uphold Federal, State and Local laws, which includes Arkansas Open Meeting Laws.

HISID meetings are streamed Live on HISID's YouTube channel and cataloged for future views / reference on their channel. 

Public records of these meetings are kept along with approved minutes, financial statements, budgets, audits;  all of this information is housed at the District office and on HISID's government website page. 

The public may submit an FOIA request for any document of any item referred in a meeting and all government records. The information can be provided as paper form copies or electronic returns.

By design, this type of transparency is a good thing for information and crediting information. 

What is astonishing?

 

These types of government meetings are open to the public and all of this factual information is available to view.

Why are discussions greater in social media groups where further diversion from the factual information is creating more and more discord and even delays in addressing what are immediate problems within the community, town and city?

Communication technology moves society backwards.

The Fire Department has a new Fire Chief Randy Ates, who presented some straight forward truths regarding the condition of the fire department at the Feb. 27, 2023 HISID meeting. 

The community has been in trouble with this lack of placing the Fire Department operations above recreational amenities. 

For some it came as a surprise, some acted surprised but, the former Fire Chief Chris Ledeker made a Fire Presentation to the BOC in a public meeting on March 15, 2021 with the same information and now two years later, it is an even greater problem.

The community's Health and Safety is at risk. The risk can no longer be swept under the carpet. It took a letter from ISO to bring the topic to the forefront in social media conversations. 

Along with the ISO letter and Chief Ates' report at the HISID meeting, Water came back to the forefront of the conversation. Fire hydrant water flow reports have not been submitted for several years.

The District has $1.4M worth of water problems to fix, which includes two wells, #4 & #5.
These two wells are the mainland source for potable water.

Grants that the District keeps stating are being submitted have actually not been submitted or if they have then the answers to several FOIA requests are incorrect. 

The District states that ESI prepares the grants yet, CNj upon submitting several FOIA requests has received these answers:

1. There is No current contract with ESI
2. There are No paid billing statements from ESI
3. There are No paid invoices from ESI

There will be no further information available until the next
HISID BOC regular meeting scheduled for March 27, 2023 at 9.m. 

_________________________________________________________________________

While you wait | blogging from Fancy This ~ Another Timeline

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HISID BOC Cancels June Workshop

Rebecca L. Sherman  June 17, 2022
Opinion

The reporting that I was expecting to write, hit a dead-end when my local government decided to cancel a workshop meeting slated for June 20, 2022. This particular workshop was to be held by the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) located in Northwest Arkansas. 

The HISID BOC hires a District Manager to oversee all functions for maintaining the district that includes a Fire, Water / Sewer and Road departments. Every year this board sets the budget and issues the Tax Assessment due in October, while the district then operates on projected numbers collected from property owners; resident and non-resident.

Two years ago, a social media platform was utilized to persuade residents to vote in favor of becoming a City. This voting group is different than a SID. A City is all residents. Property ownership is not what counts. Just a registered voter. 

The HISID BOC had invited the City elected officials to the table for this workshop session that was officially Canceled on June 16 (notification to the press.)

A HISID workshop meeting only requires two BOC officials to hold a workshop meeting and hear concerns and questions from the public. There is no actions to be taken by the BOC. In the past this area has utilized this open meeting format with great success. In these current times of social media chatter, a workshop would have a positive effect regarding information especially for a reporter.

Questions such as:

1. Rumor has it that the water levels are low in the fire hydrants? A fireman quit because of this? There are broken hydrants? The insurance fire rating has dropped?
2. HISID has assigned Stateline Road to the new City of Holiday Island? The City that has no road department, will the City pay the SID for maintaining this 911 roadway? When winter comes, Who plows it? Who pays for the equipment, employee salary and the chemicals needed? 
3. Follow-up question: Will the HISID AOB be reduced on the next Tax Assessment?
4. Why is HISID allowing all of the VRBO, AirB&B lodgings in what the covenants clearly state are residential ONLY areas? Is HISID collecting commercial rates on the  tax assessment? Residents in the Blue Water Circle area have complained that they are paying commercial rates on residential living areas. When will the HISID planning commission address all of these concerns? Is there even an active HISID planning commission? This is not a City problem.
5. The Water Department is a HISID business. The rumor has it that the Federal Government has many grants for local Water Departments. Any HISID staff looking into this opportunity? Well #1 was just repaired under emergency actions. There are only two active potable wells, #4 and #5, that carry the water load for the greater Holiday Island area. These wells were not originally functioning as the sole wells to provide for drinking water to the residents of Holiday Island. Are you meandering the water from these wells in order to cover the mainland? 
6. Follow-up question: The Water: With the fire department rurmor of low water pressure in the hydrants and only two active wells for both drinking water and hydrants: Why is the focus on the new swimming pool building? This expense appears as a cart before the horse type of thinking. It is a private pool. Even the thinking, "you have to spend money to make money," Residents are trying to speak-out and let it be heard that they want clean drinking water and a home that has a fire department with water to fight any type of fire.

Now, if the HISID BOC had not Canceled their scheduled workshop meeting for June 20, 2022, imagine how many other comments, questions and points-of-view might have been offered at a workshop for the community.