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The Infrastructure of the District
The Greenfield Fire District has grown tremendously over the past five years. In my opinion, the infrastructure of the district has not grown to meet the ever growing demands of performing its duty to the public.
The Greenfield Fire District is one of the largest district's in Saratoga County and based off of 2003 data, it is the most active volunteer fire district in the county. The Exit 15 commercial corridor is rapidly growing which is also met with an equally large residential growth throughout both the Town of Greenfield and Wilton. A very large percentage of this development is composed of very large and highly priced home which present unique protection challenges. So the question now becomes, "how does the district grow to meet these growing needs?" Without a doubt, one necessary component of this growth is a solid infrastructure.
Now what do I mean by "infrastructure?" Infrastructure is the term I use to describe anything that is necessary for the fire district to conduct business. In this case, we are in the business of running a fire district - providing fire protection for our residents. Specifically what I refer to by infrastructure is everything other than the firefighting equipment itself - the apparatus, gear, tools, etc. Stuff like security systems, building maintenance, computer systems/networks, business plan(s), and a master plan.
What I want to focus on in this section is the computer systems. The overall business processes of the district are pretty good. In fact, the current board does a great job of managing money and planning future purchases. The issue here is efficiency and scope. There is alot of data that is entered twice or sometime three times - such is the case with fire reports. Each of the four companies has their own prefered method of keep track of their own fire calls. This data is typically reentered into another format, which is then submitted to the district secretary, which is reformatted into an accepted format for the state. A uniform system across the district would prevent the wasted hours of reprocessing data from the companies. And having a centralized uniform data collection method would allow to have backedup data.
There are additional benefits from a computer system as well. It would enable a more accurate and robust inventory record. As we move into the future and the district acquires more and more equipment, keeping those records accurate is essential to prevent over spending.
Rewarding our Volunteers
I have yet to find one member of the district that has ever once said that he/she wanted to be paid/rewarded for their service. The fact is that everyone in this district volunteers because they enjoy doing it. It gives us a singular distinction amongst the community; providing a service that the typical person perhaps can't do. We take pride in providing our service and in helping those in need whereever and whenever the need should arise.
During this campaign I have had the opportunity to speak more personally one on one with various firefighters of the district. I am, as I always have been, thouroughly impressed with the unbounded professionalism of the firefighters. It upsets me to know that there are residents of this district that are not aware of the dedication and service that our firefighters give to the community (I address this in the "Bridging the Communication Gap" section).
As I look around at neighboring districts that are much smaller and less active than this one, I see some of the benefits that their districts provide for their members over ours. The biggest of which is a pension program.
As of September, the district has only begun to explore this possibility, and if it is not enacted by January, I certaintly will be a strong proponent of instituting the program.
ISO Rating
An ISO rating is one factor that determines your insurance premium on your home insurance. The iso rating approximates how well your property is protected firematically. That is, the lower the number, the better the fire protection in your community. Currently the district's ISO rating is 4/9.
An iso rating takes many things into consideration: public-awareness programs, staffing levels and performance evaluations. I'm confident that the district can score rather nicely on most of the qualifications that ISO considers.
As the iso website states, the evaluation process is free to the district - so even though it is a lengthy process, there really isn't a reason not to pursue it.
In speaking with some of the people from Rock City Falls Fire Department - who recently under went an ISO reevaluation, its possible to save tax payers of this district 10% on their insurance - if you get your ISO rating increased. So at the very least, this should be something that should be pursued.
Bridging the Communication Gap between Tax Payers, Firefighters, and the Board
In speaking with people in community I think there is a big gap in communication between the district and the community. One big misconception that we are paid firefighters, the Greenfield Fire District is 100% volunteer. Some aren't aware of the many other things that we do outside of fighting fires - such as the large fire prevention program at the local elementary schools and other fire prevention activities.
I think there are many simple things the Board of Fire Commissioners can do to help clear up these misconceptions and become more visible amongst the community.
- Consistent with the Freedom of Information Law, I think that the district should adopt a digitization effort, much like the New York State digitization effort. I would be more than willing to design and implement a website to do just that, allow the district to post information to make it readily available for the public to view at a moments glance. Having a website offers many advantages - the ability to post minutes, post district meeting information, fire company information, budget information, etc.
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Mailing out regular reports to the community. Mailing out reports that contain district news, information, business items, etc. helps to keep the community up on what's going on in the district.
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A third option would be to publish ads in the local newspaper. I prefer the regular reports and website options myself, but publishing a monthly, triannual or biannual article wouldn't hurt either.
All of these options can be done very cheap and require little effort. The ultimate goal would be to close the gap between the community and district - and I think these three options can do just that.
I actually decided to run for commissioner after attending the first two monthly district officer's meetings of this year. I began to realize the communication gap between the district officer's and the commissioners. I have made every officer meeting this year except one, and as commissioner - I will continue to do in an effort to close the communication gap between the officers and commissioners.
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