Staff Reports

Note from Mountain View Electric Association:

"We cannot thank you enough for your quick response and incredible professionalism in assisting with the recent fire involving our fiber contractor. We are truly grateful for all you do!

With deepest gratitude,

Mountain View Electric Association"

Staffing

Photos on scene at the Antler Grove Fire

Prevention/Administration

• Longview Estates – I had the developer change the will serve to only include the properties within the Elizabeth Fire District and will reiterate that in any review documentation in the future.
• There was a slight hiccup with the M365 migration. The actual migration went well but, when all of our emails did not renew with Go Daddy, they migrated them back since they were still an admin on our account portal. Long story, we have them off of everything and it seems to be working properly.
• I have been attending the ECCA meetings to represent the fire district. I am also on the hiring committee for the new ECCA manager.
• We have been selected to be the first round of fire departments that migrate to the NERIS platform. We will be working with ImageTrend and Douglas County Dispatch for the transition. Then we will be providing training for our crews. There will be more to come when the project kicks off.

Fire Prevention Specialist (Ryan Seng)

• We’re continuing to work with the Colorado State Forest Service on the mitigation grant. We held an informational meeting on March 28 for homeowners that have previously signed up. The meeting was held in person and virtually, and we had a decent turn out. The meeting was also recorded for those that could not attend.
• Since the announcement of the grant we’ve received, we’ve had several more homeowners sign up for the grant. The State Forest Service says we may include these properties in the grant if any funds are left over. We’ve also had several requests for mitigation assessments.
• School inspections are complete, and the reports have been sent to the state.

Fire and Life Safety Education (Erin Loeks)

• We only have two more times to read to the Preschools this school year. All classes enjoy this so much! I know the crews have too!
• We offered a Babysitting class over Spring Break. Seven students attended and are now CPR and First Aid certified and ready for summer babysitting jobs! We will also offer one class in June and one in July.
• I am hoping to expand our Support Services team. We have some interest in helping with Babysitting classes.
• I started working with Brittney from Independence to offer a Babysitting class at the Independence Clubhouse this summer.
• Safety Messages are still going well. Thank you crews for your participation and ideas for future messages you would like to see.
• I am working with the EHS Health teacher to bring Hands Only CPR to his students.

Photos from this month's safety message highlighting smoke alarms

Pre-Application Meetings

Photo of Pre-Application Meetings

In March, we interviewed 2 applicants for a part-time paramedic position. These 2 completed the ride-along process, and we offered both a position. They will start in May after all background checking is complete.

We also interviewed 2 applicants for an Admin Assistant internship. One of these applicants stood out, and we plan to offer them a position in April.

I participated in a job fair at Elizabeth High School at the beginning of March. It wasn’t very successful as it was geared more toward applicants for the school district. The school district did say they hoped to offer a job fair for the students, maybe in May. We will be on the lookout for this event.

Our March payment for property taxes was a very big amount so I was able to invest some of this at a rate of 4.35 which will come due in June.

I found out the auditor will be in the office at the end of May to complete the audit for 2024.

EMS collection for March $45,603.56

Development and Impact Fees:

Zone 1 $488,016.12

Zone 2 $17,364.15

Zone 3 $18,416.05

Gift Agreement $299,841.10

Infrastructure Fund $96,330.00

• Fleet is in pretty good shape right now. We have a few maintenance repairs to take care of as the trucks go in for service but no major issues. Medics are completing yearly PMs currently, and the brush trucks will be in the shop next for PMs before the beginning of fire season.
• So far, everything for the new Type 1 and Type 3 engines is on schedule. The order for the Type 1 should be placed with Pierce in the next week or two, and, the last I have heard, delivery dates are still on track.
• The spray foam bids for the bay ceiling at Station 271 were higher than expected. I have contacted another contractor that has significant experience dealing with insulation in metal buildings, and they are working up a rough estimate on the cost of repairing the damaged areas of the existing insulation and reskinning the entire ceiling with new fabric. I am hoping this option will be similarly effective and more affordable.
• We have added a small hot water heater to the front office area restroom of Station 271 for the BCs and for when the public or board is using that restroom.
• The tech rescue team received additional training last month on rope rescue and hauling systems. Our new rope rescue bags are complete and ready to be placed in service; I anticipate mid-April. Lts Einarsen and Tyler have been working on an SOP for this equipment which I hope to see completed by May.
• I have ordered a hydrogen cyanide sensor to be placed on one of our multi gas detectors and calibration gas so we can monitor for this hazard on the fireground. Hydrogen cyanide is a little expensive to monitor for but a critical part of air monitoring with today’s fuels.
• I have completed a new policy on Special Event call types to clarify some confusion on when we use that vs. an F Test call type.

• Our SCBA compressor motor failed in January and was replaced in February. Hopefully this will buy us some time, but Lt Regan and I are getting quotes for a possible replacement in 2026 or 2027. We will be looking into grants to help fund the replacement, and we are hoping that we can move the aging compressor to Station 273 in the future.
• Chief G and I met with Elizabeth PD to discuss a joint student academy. EPD has been putting on this academy for years and asked us if we would be interested in joining. We are in the beginning stages, but the academy will take place in late May. I've recruited FF Brittany McGhee to lead the academy, and I'll have more information on this in April and May.
• B-Shift has been staffing Station 272 with FF Befus and Paramedic Johnson for the last couple of months, allowing us to have that station open every shift. We've been moving the part-time employees to Station 271. This whole process has been great for both our career and PT employees. Our goal is to give informal leadership to our career employees at 272, as well as advance our PT members with skills and apparatus sign-offs that they didn't always have the chance to accomplish at 272. We are hoping to have the ability to rotate our three paramedics to every station beginning in 2026. We would not be able to accomplish this without the work that Chief Mackall does with our part-time staffing. Thanks, Chief!
• The academy recruits have completed their lecture/skills HazMat portion of the academy. They all passed their State practical and took their written test on 3/31.
• Also on 3/31, we had 8 part-time and career members take DO-U, DO-P, and FFII written exams.
• It sounds like the NFA class cancellations in Maryland were short-lived. The classes that were cancelled in April have been rescheduled for August.
• Lt Tyler and Lt Holt are attending a Fire Officer I class in May.
• I have reached out to Lt Reeder’s mom to discuss educating our members on how to adapt to some of our customers with special circumstances. We have a number of residents with Autism, and we would benefit from having a better understanding of how to interact with this population. Mrs. Reeder is a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with 30 years experience and she specializes in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Photos of crews training

• The First-In station alerting installation has started with running cable and conduit throughout the three stations. The equipment is ordered, and I'm told it should arrive in the next two weeks. I expect this project to be completed before May 1st: can't wait!
• We had our RETAC hearing for the EMTS auto-loader grant. Lt Regan gave a good presentation, and they didn't have many questions, so I have a good feeling on this one so far!
• We interviewed and offered two individuals part-time paramedic positions; they have accepted and are in the background check process. If cleared, they will start May 1st.
• We were selected to be a NERIS beta testing agency; this is cool news because we can get a jump start on the NFIRS to NERIS transition and provide some input on its implementation. We need to be moved to NERIS before January 1st, 2026.
• We're participating in a program put on by the State that will provide us with free internasal Narcan that we can give out to at-risk community/family members we come in contact with. Training for our providers will happen in April, and we should have the program in place after that. I think this is a cool program, maybe a band-aid for a much larger issue….but at least it's another way we can help our community.
• John Mason has retired from his position at Advent Health Parker. John has been our hospital liaison, EMS educator, and friend for the past 10+ years and helped our agency in countless ways; he will be greatly missed. We wish him a happy and relaxing retirement! He knows our doors are always open if he wants to come by for a cup of coffee and catch up.
• Congratulations to all who renewed their NREMT in March! Elizabeth Fire does not require our providers maintain their NREMT, but it’s highly encouraged!

EMS Calls (excluding "no patient"):

• Mar 2024 = 66 (44 Transports/67%)
• Mar 2025 = 58 (39 Transports/67%)

Kudos to B-Shift yesterday. The man that fell at True Value wanted to thank the crews for getting there so quickly to help him and was truly thankful for your service. Great Job!!! Keep up the good work serving our community.

Shout out to Chief Brown for coming in on his day off to manage the district while B-Shift was working a WUI incident.

Shoutout to Brittany McGhee and Travis Sugg on passing their recent written exams.

Great work to Robbie Fairfield for passing both DOP and Firefighter II in the past couple of weeks!

Shoutout to Matt Sheikh for his hard work on the HazMat practical and the informational PowerPoints for academy.

Congratulations to Colt Tyler for receiving the Firefighter Safety and Disease Prevention grant for wildland boots!

Thank you to A-Shift for all their help during the informational meeting for the mitigation grant last week.

Shoutout to Caitlin McGhee and Clint Pappas for passing their HazMat Awareness and Operations on the first try!

This year, our new year's resolution is to help our community get to know us better! We’ve introduced a new item to our social media accounts, titled “Firefighter Friday,” where, every Friday, we introduce another member of our staff to our community. This has been very well received by the members of our District. Below are the Firefighter Friday highlights for the month of March.

This month, we highlighted Firefighter EMT Nick Wisthoff, Paramedic-Firefighter Brandon Dressel, Lieutenant Casey Holt, and Part-Time Firefighter EMT Maggie Wherry!