Minutes of the
St. Clair County Fire Chiefs Association
&
MABAS Divison 32
July 29, 2004
The St. Clair County Fire Protection Districts opened the meeting with the pledge of allegiance, followed by a moment of silence for Retire O'Fallon Fire Chief Dave Little who recently passed away.
The meeting was recessed for dinner.
The meeting resumed.
President Feher called the meeting of the St. Clair County Fire Chiefs to order. Chief Feher dispensed with the normal order of business, and introduced J.T. Somer, the newly appointed Illinois State Fire Marshal. Fire Marshal Somer spoke to the organizations on the status of the revolving loan program, and the current budgeting for the Fire Marshal's office. Fire Marshal Somer indicated that the OSFM and IAFC will be putting on 2 day seminars for chief officers in the near future. The OSFM is also looking for photos to be displayed in the Springfield office that is being redecorated.
President Feher introduced Frank Schaper, Executive Director of the St. Louis Area Regional Response Systems (STARRS). Mr. Schaper gave an overview of STARRS an what the program is doing on a regional basis on both sides of the river. Stlmmrs is the new medical tracking system being implemented in the St. Loius Region. Stlmmrs is under the control of STARRS.
The Fire protection districts held their business meeting.
Chief Render gave an update on the drug distribution program getting setup for St. Clair County. A policy was put together and is available. The program is being lead by the St. Clair County Health Department. Fire departments must provide their own health professional to administer the drugs if needed.
APR Mask Distribution Program is continuing. A mandatory training session will be held on August 5th at 6pm and 8pm at Fairview Engine House #1. Departments not able to attend here, must attend another class in the state before their department will be issued their masks.
All departments should have received a letter recently from the Illinois Terrorism Task Force concerning the Starcom Radio System. The suggestion is for department to get a base station radio. Departments will have to provide their own anntenea and will have to pay for installation cost of approximately $200.
Statewide ID Cards - progress is continueing. The first 8,000 cards are being issued to hazmat teams, tech rescue teams and high state officials.
Departments are being asked to contact their local state representatives, and urge them to join the Illinois Fire Service Caucus. Representative Tom Holbrook is the only current member from this area.
The Fire Chiefs Association will be hosting the weekend training at U of I again this year. The date is set for October
23rd and 24th.
The DuQuion State Fair will be held the first week in September. The State Fire Marshal's Office is asking for help staffing their booth from St. Clair County Departments on September 5th from 12-8pm.
Recently an email was sent out asking for approval to donate money to SCSESA for the purchase of another pickup truck to pull the trailers. This money would be the matching portion of a grant from USDA rural grants. Chief Feher asked for a formal motion to donate the money to SCSESA. Motion was made and seconded. Motion passed.
Swansea Fire Department will be hosting a NIMS unified command class in September. Further information will be sent out.
Any department interested in ladder testing, contact Chief McGuire at Swansea.
Chief McGuire presented for review, a proposed change in the association by-laws for retired fire chiefs to remain members of the association. The proposal will be sent to all departments and discussed at the September meeting.
IEMA will be hosting the ground search rescue class on September 11th and 12th in Nashville. Class size is limited and will include 15 persons from St. Clair County and 15 from Washington County. There is no cost. For further information contact Asst. Chief Borkowski at Northwest or Stan Krucias at IEMA.
SWIC - Lee Smith has put together the fall semester class courses. The classes were sent out to all departments. Students should register with Lee or one of the instructors, not thru the college registration office. Work on the training site is continuing.
The Missouri Fire Marshal is still looking at the issue of who can sign agreements for Missouri to join MABAS 32.
ESDA - Plans are in the works and CENCOM will be moving into the 911 office building, in coordination with the new county radio system.
Asst. Chief Brewer offered the thanks of the O'Fallon Fire Department for the thoughts and prayers for Chief Little, and to those departments who assisted with the memorial service.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:55pm.