St-Clair County Fire Chiefs Association and

MABAS Division 32

Meeting Minutes 12/05/02

The meeting was hosted by the Fairview Fire Department. and was called to order at 7:05 PM by President Feher.  President Feher introduced State Representative Tom Holbrook.  Representative Holbrook discussed the recent state task force hearings.  The state will be setting up a firefighting caucus.  President Feher received a draft copy of 25 proposals that the task force has put together.  Representative Holbrook also reminded those in attendance of the recent grant for $880,000 to Southwestern Illinois College for training enhancements at the training site on Freeburg Avenue.  President Feher then presented Representative Holbrook with a white firefighters helmet, recognizing him as an honorary member of the St. Clair County Fire Chiefs Association, and thanking him for all his support for the fire service in the region.

The meeting was recessed for dinner.

The meeting resumed at 7:56pm.

The minutes of the September 2002 meeting were approved as distributed.

Secretary/Treasurer Rutherford gave the treasurer's report which included the annual report.  The ending balance of 2002 is $26,143.20.  Motion was made and seconded to approve the report.  Motion passed.

ESDA - Darryl Elbe reported that the final report on the radio system has been received.  The county will be holding a meeting on December 16th to discuss the system.  The estimated cost of the system is 25 million dollars.  The county has hired a grant writer to assist with finding funding for the system.  The county held a table top exercise on November 12th which included mayors and city managers from all over the county.

IEMA - Stan Krucias elaborated on the table top exercise.  The exercise was designed for chief elected officials to address policy and strategy.

OSFM/IFSI - Duane Bales reported that Vehicle Machinery Operations will take the place of Roadway Extrication effective January 1, 2003.  There will be a 16 hour transition class available till December 31, 2005 for those persons that certified in Roadway Extrication.  Personnel must still complete the 8 hour Technical Rescue Awareness Class.

The International Fire Chiefs will be hosting a vehicle extrication competition on January 21, 2003 in Holiday Shores. 

Special Emergency Services - Dan Norkus advised the team will be looking at weapons of mass destruction after the first of the year.  They will also be looking at setting up divisions for technical rescue. 

Lee Smith spoke of the formation of a Technical Rescue Task Force.  Any departments interested and have some equipment should contact Lee and he will coordinate the effort to put the Task Force together.  Existing equipment will be individually checked.  Lee then passed out a handout that justifies what type of training departments should be providing.  The board at Southwestern Illinois College is working on plans for the training site on Freeburg Avenue.  School Bus extrication will be held again next spring.  Lee offered assistance to departments that aquire buildings to burn, including the permit process.  The spring schedule for SWIC has been sent out. 

President Feher introduced Greg Ferrell, Chairman of South Central Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.  Greg introduced his association that works with 42 departments in 12 counties, and they work for the betterment of fire departments across all of central Illinois. The association meets one the 4th Thursday, every other month. 

Don received a letter from Ernest Russell, asking for a letter of support for his appointment by Governor Rod Blagojevich as Fire Marshal for the State of Illinois. A motion was made and seconded to write a letter from the Chiefs Association in support of Ernest Russell.  Motion passed.  Members were also encouraged to write individual letters.  If your department is interested, write the letter to:

    Rod Blagojevic, Governor-Elect

    4064 North Lincoln Avenue

    Chicago, IL 60618

    Fax (773)868-0036

A nominating committee consisting of Dean Juenger and Brian Funk was established to present a slate of officers for the association at the January meeting.  Anyone else interested in helping, contact Dean Juenger.

Bruce Green is looking at setting up a users group for Firehouse Software.  Anyone interested, contact Bruce. 

Bruce Green also advised that Kevin Smith, fire investigator with the Fire Marshal's Office, will be dealing with some upcoming legal issues.  Bruce requested that departments sign an affidavit about Kevin that he would forward to the Fire Marshal's Office to try to help Kevin.  

Don reported that the St. Louis City Agreements have been received back for a signature, and will then be forwarded back to St. Louis for one last signature.  This process should be done soon.

Lance Kennerly of Fire Safety, sent a letter looking for financial help with medical issues for his child.  After some discussion, a motion was made and seconded to donate $100 to Lance.  Motion passed.

Radio frequency information was passed out to the task force and explained for some special programming.

Don passed out service pins from the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association. The following pins were distributed:

    Gerald Scott - Caseyville - 5 years

    Floyd Florke - Valmeyer - 10 Years

    Dave Nulsen - Cahokia - 10 Years

    Steve Allen - Villa Hills - 5 Years

The chiefs meeting was adjourned at 9:05 pm.

The MABAS 32 meeting was called to order at 9:05pm by President Feher.

Discussion was held concerning the Standard Operating Procedures that were distributed in Cahokia at the last meeting.  The following changes were proposed:

1) Include attachment A and B.  (attachment A has yet to be developed, and attachment B is referenced in the Chiefs Resource Manual.

2) Section F - look at changing the heading name.

3) Section E, paragraph 4 - Change Firefighter to personnel, and make it to meet the minimum requirements by IDOL.

After the discussion, the SOP's were tabled till January pending the discussed changes.

The MABAS 32 meeting was adjourned at 9:35pm

Respectfully submitted,

Tom Elliff
Vice President