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 

Fancy This! ~ Another Timeline: blog posts | Editorial Opininon

 

Creekside News Journal (CNj)

Smoke & Mirrors

Monday, March 6, 2023

Fancy This! ~ Another Timeline: blog posts | Editorial Opininon

While this reporter waits for news worth reporting, here is a list of blog posts that I wrote over the years, that might assist in understanding this writer.

Editorial Opinion: This Dadaist Sorts Hats

Word For The Day: Plagiarism, Copyright Infringement, Intellectual Property

Word for the Day: Social Media

Word for the Day: Executive Session

Word for the Day: Special Meeting

Note: Creekside News Journal is the Press ### notification for the 

Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) special meetings 

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

Short Topic 1 - Legal (June 14, 2017)

Now with Bill Moyers | Special Report: Kids & Chemicals   (May 10, 2002)

 

The DOTGOV Act of 2020

 

DOTGOV ONLINE TRUST
IN GOVERNMENT ACT OF 2019

A committee of U.S. legislatures worked
for years on what eventually
passes as the DOTGOV Act of 2020.

Whether Federal, State or Local government, the Act was to help the public trust accessing online internet websites.

The public needed to know that (dot)gov was official and offered cybersecurity.  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on
March 08, 2021 that it would begin overseeing the .gov top-level domain (TLD) in April 2021.

In Arkansas there is a suburban improvement district that is a local government group with five elected board of commissioners (BOC). The BOC writes regulations, oversee a tax budget of nearly $3 million to operate a water department, road department, fire department, recreation center, two golf courses and a marina.The office buildings, a clubhouse, plus a restaurant, and a campground. The website for the Holiday Island Suburban District (HISID) has not transitioned itself into the (dot)gov, even though it is a government entity that collects payments online.

The same local area, as recent as January 2021 was additionally voted upon to become a City.  Currently there is an elected seven member board that will increase to eight members in 2023 with the creation of Wards.

"A momentous $200 million worth of federal cybersecurity grant money is slated to come to state and local governments this year, with another $800 million arriving over the next three years. Localities are to be the biggest recipients; with 80 percent of the funds promised to them." (source)

Holiday Island (City of the 2nd class) did not create an online presence with a DOTGOV domain name. This government entity operates as volunteers. Those volunteers utilize free resources for an Internet presence as well as educating themselves on operations.

Back in 2021, when they held full ZOOM meetings during the pandemic, there were professionals attempting to get their attention, both tech firms and this reporter, that there was this new DOTGOV Act.

At that time, it would have been perfect for a new start-up city or any new government entity. A one-year grace period for registration fees. Now, to get compliant will create more work and money lost from the grants. 

Update Aug. 1, 2022

Cyber Insurance Price Hike Hits Local Governments Hard

Some rates have more than doubled, and many insurers require
new security protections.

Building a city takes time and money

There is a demographic area in Arkansas that has the ability to now declare itself, "newest city" in the State.

The process hit many bumps along the way but, with the help of Arkansas State Senator Bob Ballinger the laws were re-written to accommodate. 

The Arkansas Decomocrat Gazette wrote this article, Holiday Island gets ball rolling to become incorporated city, in December 2019.

When it was approved to place on the 2020 General Election Ballot, many people later expressed their misunderstanding as to what they were actually signing. 

Then when it actually passes, the anticipated money "turnback funds" was not immediately available. Those are dispensed funds to entities based on the previous year and that would be tax money of 2019. 

The community receives some poor information. Some were told, If you vote to be a City then the SID goes away. That is false info. The second government entity is the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID). 

The City consists of resident property owners and renters. (voter's registration)

The SID is property owners both resident and non-resident. This group receives a Tax Assessment. It is not an HOA contrary to real-estate forms. 

In 2000, the Federal Government told all government groups to acquire a (dot) gov website for conducting government business. Everyone even received a one year grace on paying the (dot) gov fee. 

The FCC and FTC also advised government groups to have a written "government social media policy." 

Social media businesses have established policies. There is a reason. Let you ponder this comment for a moment.

So, I read in local social media groups, over and over that the communication is horrible for this new city. Don't disagree. I know where that info is but, not my job to keep directing people to a site that is not a (dot) gov. 

I did watch the city's June meeting live online and again today as an archive.

Image by Marc Manhart from Pixabay 

Google Town

Called to order. All board members present. Held up while phone numbers being exchanged; waiting for one person to join online. That person seems to be someone hired by contract to actually take the minutes.

 

• The position of Code Enforcer has a candidate that accepted the City's offer. 
• An interview with one applicant for Building Inspector. No offer given yet.
• Short term rentals discussed and still researching
• The Broadband Grant is not progressing.
• The Sheriff contract is not progressing, at this time.
• The City approves the interlocal contract between The City and the Suburban Improvement District. No details. Moves to The Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) board of commissioners (BOC) on their agenda for Monday, June 27,2022 for discussion and a vote. The contract agreement begins on July 1, 2022 and runs through December 31, 2022.
• Mayor has no quotes for bag tags. His phone is filled with calls regarding the City's mandatory trash collection. He said, the City also needs a City dumpster. 

1. City planning commission repeatedly points out that zoning / planning ordinances and regulations are all under review by the City attorney.
2. At this meeting, Lynn Dumas informs the Mayor and the Board that all plans from the planning commission by law have to be published in a newspaper for 15 days prior to a meeting. (Not just any newspaper; One with a circulation certificate)
3. And: The planning commission is required by law to hold public hearings before an ordinance / regulation is approved.
   

Back to the top:
Bryan King won the Republican Primary Run-off against Senator Bob Ballinger. 

New Home for Creekside News Journal (CNj)

I have and still write about local, national and World News. I earned a lifetime membership in the Golden Key International Honour Society and would like to reconnect with other global members.It is my opinion that one should be aware of their local happenings, as well as global issues.

  

I named my press website Creekside News Journal (CNj) in 2007.
A name that could always journey with me.
I am forever living near a creek and if that should ever change well, photographers and the World Wide Web keep me grounded. There is always a forever canopy of stars, trees, creeks and oceans captured by photographers from around the world that share their images with those of us that surf the World Wide Web.

I have been scattered all over the internet and I thought I had finally started pulling all the parts of me back into one location but, not just yet.

 
I needed to find a new location once again for CNj.
I got older and wasn't keeping up with web designing and coding.
Dropped CNj off at Tumblr and now I am pulling away after years.
There is a technical reason for me but, I will keep an eye on the Tumblr photographers' community. 

 
Many activities have taken place and this is my last attempt to catch-up.

I am condensing my time spent. 

For those of us that have been using Twitter since Jack Dorsey and his partners created the platform, it is not new to me to return to private ownership there.

I read through all of Twitter's updated Terms of Service. They go into effect in June. No matter who you might be as a user of the Twitter platform, I suggest you read the new TOS.

New update: Who Knows? Has Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter?

Keep an eye on this: Business Insider and Politico

Politico 7/8/2022  Elon Musk quits Twitter deal roiling Trump world

New update:  "District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine has sued Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal."
All those share buttons that people insert on their websites need to catch-up with the current times. 
I find more and more individuals, organizations, local newspapers and governments that have not placed their websites into https compliance.
 
Organizations, local newspapers and governments will find themselves loosing more and more of their identity and audience on the internet. 
Then there are government websites that will begin to realize why they needed to become .gov websites two years ago. 
Remember? Government was told by the FCC & FTC to have a Government Social Media Policy.