At the last couple LMRFD board meetings they have made headway on getting equipment that had been neglected being serviced and looking for a used ambulance as a backup.
The ambulance will be a 4x4 so firefighters don't get stuck on some of our roads. Tim is working with everyone to make our fire district better. Lets all give him a chance, there's a learning curve to all this...
All firefighters should know about this program
HUD's Good Neighbor Next Door program
Law enforcement officers, pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians can contribute to community revitalization while becoming homeowners through HUD's Good Neighbor Next Door Sales Program.
HUD offers a substantial incentive in the form of a discount of 50% from the list price of the home. In return you must commit to live in the property for 36 months as your sole residence. Read more about the program on the pages listed below.
Law Enforcement Firefighters and Teachers are eligible for HUD's Good Neighbor Next Door Sales Program.
UPDATE April 2021
FirstNet Band 14 now in Dolan Springs
I've been researching FirstNet the standalone network approved by Congress and built for first responders. I use an app called OpenSignal The app checks and logs cell service while you drive providing a map of service areas for various cellular companies.
It looks like larger population areas like Kingman, LHC and BHC have access to Band 14 that allows high power equipment with 6 times the power of your cell phone.
I was hoping the LMRFD could use FirstNet but it looks like AT&T is going to need to add Band 14 to Meadview before it would be useful for first responders.
Please add OpenSignal to your phone and it will log where we have and don't have cellular service in our area. This will help our first responders know where they can expect cell service and where they know they have none.
Verizon Meadview Coverage
We hope the FirstNet buildout will include rural areas like ours in the future, but for now first responders should depend on Verizon in our area.
Please load OpenSignal on your phone and let it run in the background as you drive. You will need to turn on data collection in settings for OpenSignal to gather coverage data.
The more we use this app the better idea we have of local cell coverage from various service providers.
I see the LMRFD agenda has the purchase of a new ambulance. The last ambulance cost around $170,000 of our tax dollars.
How long does it take to put 25,000 to 40,000 miles on our ambulance?
Here are some example of ambulances we can actually afford..
Free Online First Aid, CPR and AED Courses
Why Would Anyone Annex Into the LMRFD When They Get the Same Services Now? We need to find how to induce people to annex into the fire district..
The LMRFD is 144 square miles while the ambulance CON, the area the LMRFD ambulance is 2200 square miles. The main part of the fire district is made up of two main parts, Dolan Springs and Meadview. The area between the two communities is confusing at best, it's outside the fire district but inside the CON.
The Meadview area especially Meadview City is more confusing being made up of a checkerboard of parcels in and outside the fire district. Whitehills is also outside the fire district along with all the parcels west of US93.
If the fire district want's people to annex into the fire district, don't we need to offer them something for their hundreds of dollars of increased property tax?
Be Honest, would you annex into the fire district and raise your property taxes by $400 a year, if you get the same services now?
Map shows all Mohave County fire district boundaries, the big blue square is the Dolan Springs portion of the fire district and small blue area at the top is Meadview. You'll see the LMRFD is larger than all other fire districts in the county combined..
Map shows that the LMRFD CON requires our ambulance to respond all the way to Sage Tank in Coconino County. I don't when or how the LMRFD ambulance was given 2200 square miles to provide EMS services, but it needs to be reviewed and reduced to something more reasonable.
As you can you can see you can't get there from here... It would take 6 1/2 hours for the ambulance to get from Dolan Springs to Sage Tank...
It looks like things are improving in the fire district. Several board members are going through a learning process being new to the board but are working hard for the district.
The former chief left chief Bonnee a lot of problems. Thousands of dollars of district bills went unpaid, and equipment was neglected. Chief Bonnee is getting these problems fixed, but sadly it looks like repairs to the equipment are going to be costly.
An example is the chief's truck. Former chief Winn had never serviced the chiefs truck in over 50,000 miles. When checked there was a little over a quart of oil in the engine. Maintenance is important to keep the districts equipment in top condition to respond to emergencies.
The chief recognized the hard work the four current volunteers with dinner and a gift card from DSCC.
We have smart people with various skills, and the district needs to take advantage of those skills. Station 41 in Dolan Springs needs some doors added for safety and privacy. Volunteer John Lilly has experience in home improvement and offered to install the doors.
We'll see how the volunteer program goes. There are so many people with skills the district could use. I hope the chief starts using the wealth of knowledge and skills local residents have.
I apologize I had to leave the meeting early for a Zoom meeting.
Many of my posts talk about the need for volunteers in the LMRFD, but that's about day to day operations for fire and ambulance calls.
Today I'm going to talk about how we can care for family friends & neighbors in those few days or weeks after a disaster.
Between the riots in our nations capital, foreign terrorist, domestic terrorist attacks, changes in weather, and recent earthquakes, the chance of a major event hitting are getting higher.
Who would respond in a regional disaster? If our region had a major weather event or earthquake where roads are closed and normal communications are down, who would respond?
The truth is nobody, nobody is going to respond if you or your family are injured in a major event, at least not for several days.
In any major event involving Kingman, Bullhead City, the Colorado River area, and Lake Havasu City, we would be on our own for days if not longer.
It's NOT the Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire Districts fault, it's not the county's fault, and it's not the states fault, it's our fault. We decided to live in a remote area where on a good day we have four firefighter covering fire protection and ambulance service for 2000+ square miles.
We decided to live in an area with limited resources so it's our responsibility to know how to take care of our family, friends and neighbors in a disaster.
But there are a lot of IF's to getting CERT training approved...
IF we can get the 20 or so people needed for a CERT training. IF a county agency will sponsor a CERT team here. IF Mohave County has the money, and IF Mohave County Emergency Management has the time.
It doesn't take much to create a real life and death emergencies in Arizona. Especially in Meadview, several times in the last 8 years I've heard calls where the ambulance was unable to respond to a call in Meadview and tad to turn back because the washes on Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Road were both running too high and roads were closed.
No CERT training is planed at this time
We're just testing the water to see how much interest there is in the training
The LMRFD Technical Committee is working to improve the service provided to the citizens of the LMRFD. We need your ideas on what the fire district's needs should be, and how we can achieve and pay for those needs.
We understand Dolan Springs and Meadview are different types of communities with different needs. Meadview is a compact community and Dolan Springs is spread out over miles. We need to understand those differences and how we can address the needs of each community.
You can post ideas and comments here or as soon as we have an email address where you can send your ideas to the Technical Committee I will update this post..
It's YOUR fire district, let us know what you need....
Well the first meeting of the LMRFD technology committee went well. A lot of good ideas were discussed and several committees formed to do research and bring back information that would then be passed on to the LMRFD board.
The technology committee is a good way for the board to get input and ideas from citizens with various backgrounds on how to help the fire district.
The fire districts board of directors controls the money and hires the fire chief. It's the chief's job to run the fire district and the board has little to say about day to day operations.
I hope there's some way for the technology committee to receive the knowledge and experience local people have, and for the chief to receive guidance or information from the technology committee without it interfering with the chief's ability to run the fire district's day to day operations.
Reply from the Arizona Fire District Association
Bonnee's back and he lied to the board AGAIN telling them for a second time that a fire chief must be a paramedic.
The fire chief is an administrator, there is no law rule or regulation requiring a fire chief to be a paramedic. In fact most fire chief's in Arizona are not paramedics, they're administrators.
I'm afraid we may need to recall the newly elected LMRFD board.
