Facilities

General

• We are very close to completion of our security and access control project. The camera system sems to be working well and gives us the option of mining video from the system in just a few minutes. We now have to update our other archaic locks with keyed systems, and our transition will be complete. 

Admin

• Thanks to Lt. Regan, our sign received a much-needed facelift. We used a rubberized black coating to hopefully reduce corrosion and rust for the near future.

Station 271

• A-Shift has been acquiring bids to repair the ceiling in the bays, which will include an option to spray foam the ceiling or repair the insulation and sheet the ceiling with metal. This will be a much-needed improvement and will help with heating and aesthetics.
• Our sewer line project is in the design phase and the contractors are working on the permits. This project is part of the DOLA grant, and we have received the PO from the state to begin. The design will change the route of our sewer line and will dump into the sewer manhole on Lionel Lane (behind the fire station). This will eliminate the many hundred feet of sewer line that extends into Elbert Street and fix our tree root issues for good. 
• The town hasn’t made much progress on their wishes to extend a water line behind our station so there isn’t much of an update. We will continue to work with them and bring you all a recommendation when the time comes. This project will increase our fire flow capacity for our station and parts of the town, so it should be a good project if the follow through. 
• The final phase of the roof replacement was completed this week. The entire station now has a new roof, and we should be good for some time. 

Station 272

• B-Shift has completed the paving project, and it looks great. They elected to increase the thickness of asphalt so that the surface will last much longer. The asphalt should help minimize the mud in the bays and give the crews a washing area. 

Station 273

• C-Shift completed their re-paving project this week. The station looks great, and this project will extend our time without repairs. The contractors did a great job and worked around our schedules and response needs. 
• The septic project is designed and ready for construction. We did receive the DOLA PO, and the contractor has received our permit. We should be able to start on this project very soon. 
• Well, ELCO chose not to wait until after the election to move their ballot box. They came out and removed the ballot box from our property and re-installed it back in the Road and Bridge staging area behind the station. I certainly hope that the county does a good job with Public Notification so that people don’t get confused on our property trying to find it.

ELCO Fire Chiefs

• The Chief and I attended a Pipeline Hazmat Tabletop Exercise that Elbert County Emergency Management arranged with Enterprise Pipeline Company. We got a better understanding of their operations and were able to fill some gaps in the incident command structure. 
• I had a meeting with Michelle about the inclusion of properties within the Longview Estates Subdivision. The owner will need to file a petition with the District as the first step.
• We have had some changes in the development south of Elizabeth, and one of the partners dropped out, leaving a development of 24 new lots. The remaining 2 owners would like to still move forward with the dedication of land for a fire station and will be going to Douglas and Elbert County on their new proposal. 
• The door access and security project are almost done. We are waiting on a part for the door at admin and then to perform a walkthrough of all the doors.

Fire Prevention (Ryan Seng)

Photo of Colorado State Forest Service informational meeting

Fire and Life Safety Education (Erin Loeks)

Photo of crews and citizens during an engine demo

Pre-Application Meetings

Photo of Pre-Application Meetings

• August was a low-key month. We interviewed 3 applicants for a part-time paramedic position. We offered one individual the position, and they will start in the second half of September. 
• Command staff are entering their requests for the 2025 budget. I will be finalizing that in September. The Colorado Legislation has come up with some revisions to the assessed value rates for the next couple of years. This will not give us much of an increase for 2025, so our revenues will stay flat for the 2025 budget year. We will continue to look for new revenue options for the coming years. 
• We did have a deployment in August, which I was able to bill the state for $21,342.67. I am just waiting to hear back if there are changes or additions. 
• I did send out the requests for Letter of Intents for LT and BC position to create a new hiring list. We received 10 LT requests and 5 BC requests. The applicants are now working on some essay questions, and then we will move to some scenarios and an oral board process. 
• I heard back from the CO Supplemental EMS for our reimbursement for the 2022-2023 year. We will be receiving $155,258.11. 
• I am working with the Auditor to complete the 2023 Financial Statements, which will be presented at the September board meeting. We will also have a budget adjustment for the 2023 budget year due to the SCBA FEMA grant we received.

• The Purchasing Committee continues to meet and discuss Type 1 and Type 3 options. We have contacted a number of manufacturers to provide specs, timelines on builds, and general costs for apparatus. I think all of us are happy with the Pierce apparatus we have, but we want to make sure we are checking all options before committing to our next purchases. 
• Medic 271 just came back from Transwest Dodge in Limon where warranty work on an oil leak was performed. This will be the final warranty work on these medics, as they have passed the warranty time frame period of five years old. Our final engine has been sent into fleet for yearly PMs. I expect to see that back soon. Yearly pump testing will take place after that, and, lastly, our end-of-year medic PMs. Besides all that, our apparatus are in pretty good shape. 
• No big changes in our CAD system or response plans this month. I am still waiting for word from Douglas Regional Dispatch that they are ready to make the CAD-to-CAD conversion and the need for us to change into proximity dispatching where we plan on using it. I also continue to check the surrounding agencies response plans, and none have made that conversion as of yet. 
• 2024 budget items are starting to wrap up for the year. On A-Shift, we are still looking at a water heater for the front bathroom sink, sealing the asphalt at Station 271’s parking lot, and some concrete work in the front of the building. We are also spending a good portion of the Tech Rescue budget this year on needed lumber and tools for the Tech Rescue Trailer. Lt. Einarsen has just ordered 10 new sets of turnout gear, and we are looking at approximately 10 additional wildland packs and fire shelters out of this year’s PPE budget. 
• Our fire danger sign for Station 271 has been delivered and will be installed within the next couple of weeks. We will also be adding a few drought-tolerant plants to that area to try and break up the rock garden look a bit.

Photos of crews during a training

• Academy graduation is set for October 9 at 1800 and is being held at Station 271. We have a lot of people to pin in addition to the cadets. We hope to see many of you there. 
• We have four people attending a Instuctor Methodology class at Larkspur Fire later this month. This is a tough class to find, and I'll be looking into hosting a class here in 2025. 
• Lt. Neisen, Lt. Regan, and I have been working on improvements and upgrades to Station 272. A huge thank you to them for getting the parking lot paved. We have also had some exterior lighting repaired, ordered a leaf blower, a power washer, mattresses, workout equipment, and will be replacing the blinds. We are going to test out some black out blinds in hopes of improving sleep quality. If they turn out to be a good product, we will work with A and C-Shift to get the blinds into Stations 271 and 273. 
• The crews have been increasing the amount of "drill" type of trainings while on shift. This is a great way to assess our skills, and we are identifying areas that we need to improve on. The STOs are doing a great job of working through these areas that need improvement. 
• I'm going to talk to Rattlesnake and Kiowa Fire to see if they are interested in getting our crews together to go over each agency apparatus and start the talk about training together. We will start with a meet and greet/familiarization, then hopefully expand into more joint trainings. We will also be inviting them to our annual live burn trainings. 
• Speaking of live burn training, each shift will be going to the TC in Kiowa to complete their annual training. Those should be done by the end of October. 
• I'm working with Lt. Helle from Castle Rock Fire to learn more about the Sim-U-Share software that we use. We've mainly used this for the promotional process, but I think there is value in being able to use it on shift as well. I attempted to do some training with the company itself, but the trainers are very.....IT/Tech based, which is not a strength of mine.

Photo of crews during a training

• We interviewed three candidates for an open part-time paramedic position. All three candidates moved onto the ride-along portion of the process and, ultimately, we offered a position to Nic Pax. Nic is a career firefighter paramedic with Franktown Fire and will be starting his part-time paramedic FI process with us in September. Congratulations, Nic! 
• Still no word from CDPHE on the purchase order for the ambulance grant…looking back at my emails from the award last year, we might have to wait until September to get started. This is getting frustrating…I know it’s going to be awhile before we receive this new medic but it sure would be nice to get started! 
• We’ve received a lot of interest in our “home-grown paramedic program”. Several members have been counseled on how to obtain the necessary prerequisites and tasks to help prepare them to apply. We have one member who is applying to Denver Health’s program that will start in January. I’m in the process of completing a CREATE educational grant to cover roughly 50% of his tuition and fees. The department intends to cover the remaining with a signed contract agreement. 
• The 2025 preliminary EMS budget is complete and submitted for review. 
• We registered seven members to attend the State EMS conference in November this year, which might be a new record. They will attend some great training to bring back to their shifts.

EMS Calls (excluding "no patient"):

• Aug 2023 = 76 (56 Transports/74%)
• Aug 2024 = 65 (50 Transports/77%)

Photo of C-Shift Lieutenant Colton Tyler and family/friends receiving his new helmet