Terrific Tuesday: The chill is not just in the air, Big Daddy
I am like this deer –it’s cold in Botetourt County in more places than in the woods.
Hey it’s Terrific Tuesday again. How’s everything in your neck of the woods?
Last week was particularly difficult for me. I witnessed a lot of good people doing mean things to each other. Not that I am not capable of doing the same, but wow. I have tried to do less of it and adopt the Golden Rule unless I am having a hot flash. I am not having a hot flash today. I am delivering Terrific Tuesday on a chilled dish today.
I described actions I witnessed as “picking wings off of Butterflies.” Some of it was in my family, some of it in my county. Does cold air bring cold actions? The Mother in me just wants to make everything all better while the reporter in me just thinks, “Grow up, people.” We don’t do business here in Botetourt County that way. Or do we?
For several years here in Botetourt we witnessed some uncivil discourse, but 99% of it was above board and very public. We had comments on the reporting of such by the dozens.
My best advice to governmental officials if you are going to talk about business in a public place recognize that more than a nosy reporter might be able to hear you. I am not looking forward to the fall out of some of this stuff as Botetourt has taken a public beating over discourse and the Buchanan fire chief’s mischief for almost 2 years.
This morning a letter arrived from the Fincastle Volunteer Fire Department. Read it. Some very unhappy campers. They aren’t the only ones– however they are the only ones to go on record. I have heard from others. Former County Administrator Jerry Burgess used to say every volunteer saved the county $50,000. Well we just hired 31 paid fire and rescue from what I’ve been told. Do the math. Low on volunteers, have to have people, but do you chase away what you have? Costly.
How much is all of this going to cost “We the people,” in a time when coffers are down? Yep, it’s that cold fellow residents. Nobody. Somebody. Everybody. Nobody wants to tell you, Somebody could tell you and, Everybody should know. We have a letter on the state of the county about to be posted up today. It is very broad and non specific. Wonder why?
In the school board every elected board member participates in the budget committee. Each of the five knows what is going on and how the budget is put together. It is hard for two ex officios from the Supervisors to come into their meeting and understand it because they aren’t there all year and see what goes on in the school division. nor are they privy to how things are put together in the same manner. They get a book and phone calls. In the county only two– Steve Clinton and Terry Austin do the budget and maybe Jack Leffel again.
I am going to be cold. As a voter and a resident, I would feel much happier about what happens if every elected Supervisor was on a budget committee.
I don’t like “Big Daddyism.” That’s when someone tells me “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Big Daddy knows what’s best for you and Botetourt County.”
I find that the chilliest thing of all. And, I don’t believe you Big Daddy. You just tried to change Supervisors meetings to 9 a.m. again to keep the public out of your meetings. All of this clandestine stuff with fire and rescue that has been on my phone for over 5 weeks. What ever happened to transparency??? I really don’t want FOIA to become my acronym. But it may.
Yes’m Botetourt County is experiencing a winter chill today. The Board of Supervisors meet today at 2 p.m. at Greenfield Education and Training Center. Ya’ll come on out. See you there!
January 22, 2013 - 12:36 PM
So we just hired 31 fire and resuce personel.??
I thought the county didnt have any money and we had to raise taxes just to make ends meet.? We just had to raise taxes so we could keep our school sports programs.
County employees cant get a decient raise now and we are yet still adding 31 new employees. Can anyone tell me where these new employees will be working and what stations? Will Eagle Rock and Glen Wilton be considered this time around?
I hate that I did not see this post until 4:30 today or I would have been at the supervisors meeting.
Last year at the announcement of the new EMS director different volunteer departments said, “BCES is top heavy”, “redundant”, “restructure existing staff to save funds”. The dismantling of the volunteers should be no surprise….
if I may respectfully correct you guys, no Botetourt did not JUST hire 31 paid staff. There are 31 paid personnel total.
Still a lot of money. Volunteers are needed.
Needless to say, this just highlights polictics at its best. As we all know, it goes on daily at every level and our politicians smugly dare us to try and do anything about it. Would love to think someday it will stop, but not very hopeful. Why we can’t have dedicated and open individuals to serve in our government is beyond my comprehension.
Need More Paid Professionals…the “volunteers” can run at night or weekends like the majority of systems in the valley. I personally like it when I can depend on the “Career” Firefighter/EMS that person made it their life’s work not a “Volunteer” who’s “Hobby” is picking & choosing the calls they get to run. If you think I’m stirring the pot. I dare you to buy a scanner and listen for (1) month. Listen to the “Volunteers” turn out for the GLORY calls (accident w/injury or entrapment, structure fire) but an elderly person w/flu like symptoms or back pain, that sometimes goes to 3rd or 4th due…with an exception for Co.2 who often seems to be running from one end of the county to the next. Here’s an idea…pay Co.2 & hire more “Professionals” I’ll pay the extra taxes to know the “Paid” guys are gonna be there.
How many Volunteer Police officers are there in Botetourt County? Or perhaps volunteer Utility workers?
More volunteers are needed, but consider the feasibility of where will someone find time to meet all of the state requirements, while also supporting their family. Its just not realistic nor possible to sustain a healthy functioning level of service.
Aren’t some of the paid staff paid for largely by federal grant money? (cf. blogs.roanoke.com/botetourtview/2011/07/botetourt-county-emergency-services-recieves-safer-grant/) There’s the issue of how to fund those positions once the grant period ends, but if I’ve read and understood the cited article correctly it’s not as if BCES has been siphoning off huge amounts of money from other areas.
That said, I do agree that volunteers are a vital and fundamental part of Botetourt’s emergency services, and should remain so.
The grant ended. That is why the county/citizen is now paying for them.
This is a 542 square mile big county full of rural areas not serviced so easily. The county is short on cash. Volunteers have run in the county for 60 years. In Rockbridge and Craig I am pretty sure there are no paid fire and rescue. Looking at response times and cash on hand really makes sense to keep our trained volunteers who are doing their best to help you and me and Botetourt County. This is not a big city. It is a rural county where volunteers in fire and rescue have a tradition. We need them.
We have two emergency care clinics in Botetourt County now available. I hate to think we are running back pain calls with EMS paid or not.
As a Botetourt County Fire/EMS Volunteer, I’d like to take a moment to clear up some of the questions asked and statements mentioned in an unbiased, factual viewpoint as possible.
Why doesn’t Eagle Rock, Glen Wilton have career staffing?
First off, on a general estimate the Eagle Rock/Glen Wilton/Oriskany area only account for about 10% of Fire/EMS calls in Botetourt County. The Eagle Rock and Glen Wilton stations currently operate as 100% volunteer and adequately handle the call volume there. The only legitimate reasoning for adding a career ambulance to Eagle Rock would be to provide faster ALS (Paramedic) care and relieve stress off of the Fincastle career ambulance. However, many taxpayers are not keen on the idea of county employees running an average of one call a shift.
Is BCES top heavy and redundant?
This is more of an opinionated question in my mind and I would rather the citizens decide for themselves whether that is a correct and concerning statement. As mentioned, BCES currently has 31 full time employees, not counting the additional part timers. Of those full time positions, 11 can be considered chief (administrative) or company (field managers) officers: Director of Emergency Services, Division Chief of Fire/EMS, Division Chief of Emergency Management/HazMat, Captain of Administration, Training Coordinator, Logistics Technician, EMS Supervisors (total of 3), the Fincastle Fire Engine/Station Captain, and the Fincastle Fire Engine/Station Lieutenant.
Citizens should listen to a scanner to find out what is really going on.
While I fully support this statement, remember that listening to radio traffic does not tell the full story. If any folks are interested in listening without having to buy a scanner, the Troutville Volunteer Fire Department provides a radio feed off of Radio Reference, the feed is also provided on the BCES website. Troutville also has a Twitter account that records the initial minute (or so) of calls dispatched when working properly.
Volunteers are needed, but there should be more career staff, especially during the weekday hours.
This is currently the direction the County seems to be heading and it will be costly to the taxpayers. The average cost of an entry-level full time field provider (FF/EMT) is $30,000 a year; add another $5,000 for a FF/Medic. Now consider it takes two EMTs and two Medics to staff a part time ambulance for an estimated total of $130,000 a year just in salary. With decreased EMS volunteers, even more calls, and an aging Botetourt population, communities really need to take a serious consideration of whether to put in an application to volunteer and help out or prepare for higher taxes to pay for more efficient EMS services. A decision is needed because the system can’t maintain the same, low level of volunteer/paid staffing it currently has.
How was the career Fincastle Fire Engine funded?
The Wagon crew and Training Coordinator were funded through a three-year SAFER grant from the federal government. The government would fund the first two years and the last year would be funded through Botetourt County (so basically buy 1 get 2 free). Once the third year is up (at the end of April 2014 if I am correct), Botetourt County must make a decision to continue funding it out of taxpayer money or cut the staff. The Wagon currently operates between the hours of 7 AM Monday to 7 PM Friday (this increase in hours was made because the Fincastle VFD supposedly only has 5 certified firemen) and must primarily run fire related calls to satisfy grant criteria.
Back pain EMS calls?
The reason EMS calls are steadily increasing is not only because of an aging population, but the fact that some people have a difficult time understanding the difference between what is an emergency and what is not. There are many back, abdomen, and leg pain runs that could easily be dealt with by visiting an urgent care facility or family physician. The local retirement communities/centers like The Glebe, Carrington Place, Bryan Center, etc. also lack adequate private transport ambulances and thus utilize the 911 system. Many folks have heard of Fire Prevention, but what about EMS Prevention? Phrases like “call if you think you need us, its why we’re here for after all” have been incredibly detrimental to the system. And no, EMS personnel can’t refuse to transport a patient that wants to go to the hospital for something like a stubbed toe.
Hope this helps,
I’d post my actual name, but I would rather not attract anymore attention than I already have.
Thanks for the information. Hopefully it will help answer the questions.
Thank you so much for taking the time to provide thorough and clarifying answers to our questions, BCES Vollie.
@Laura, you’re welcome and thank you for taking an interest in Emergency Services. It’s always nice to see citizens and the media taking a more active and critical role. Any stakeholder in Fire & Rescue deserves to have their questions answered.
In reference to the above quoted here:
“Needless to say, this just highlights politics at its best. As we all know, it goes on daily at every level and our politicians smugly dare us to try and do anything about it. Would love to think someday it will stop, but not very hopeful. Why we can’t have dedicated and open individuals to serve in our government is beyond my comprehension.”
Let me offer my experience and opinions. The Botetourt County residents I met in my short time on the board were family oriented, hardworking, dedicated people that love this county and just want to live quietly and to be left alone. I feel the same way and want the same thing, however the reality is we can’t be quite. The vast majority of Botetourt County citizens do not have a clue about what’s going on in their government, their emergency services, their public schools, their roadways, waterways, public utilities etc., we simply are disengaged.
I would suspect that if I asked most citizens if they had ever read the “CAFR” they would probably reply, what’s that? The “CAFR” is the Botetourt County “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” it can be downloaded from the county website on the internet here http://www.botetourt.org/government/documents/finance/cafr_12.pdf . It’s a fine piece of work packed full of accounting terms, acronyms, footnotes and a lot of numbers. Let’s just look at a few from the most recent 2012 CAFR. For example “Cash and cash equivalents” reported in the 2012 CAFR at “$14,173,894.00” that’s a lot of cash. Has anyone ever asked the question “Where is the cash and what are the equivalents”? another one “Capital Assets” $74,571,292.00 when was the last time anyone actually saw an itemized journal of exactly what assets this county owns, what is the market value of these assets as opposed to the depreciated or book value? How about this one, “Long term Liabilities” $44,580,733.00 anyone wondered recently just who do we owe, what are the terms and repayment schedules? Here is a really good one, “Capital Assets” $35,235,486.00 how about a detailed and itemized list of what makes up this number. And how about “Unrestricted Assets” $10,754,235.00 ever wonder about that one? Probably not if you’ve never read the CAFR, been to a board meeting, budget meeting, planning meeting etc.
As I looked over the 2012 CAFR something caught my eye, have you heard anyone raise the issue or question why there is a $5,031,226 discrepancy in Capital Assets from 2011 CAFR to 2012 CAFR? I haven’t. The citizens of this county need to get involved and start looking at and questioning the numbers we are supplied to support and promote the agenda of our local government.
One of the things about Accrual Accounting is that it’s simple maybe even common practice to accelerate expenses while deferring income if an agenda exists to find a reason to raise taxes or borrow money, and likewise it’s just as easy to accelerate income and defer expenses if you want to build a case to promote a project or support a pay raise. I suspect many times the numbers we get to see are tweaked for the occasion. Is it illegal? Probably not and as long as there is no one willing to critically review and hold government accountable then this could be taking place right before our eyes.
County Budget talks are already underway, the budget only looks at outgo and income, it doesn’t look at what I call balance sheet items such as “Cash and equivalents”, the budget could easily state a shortage of funds based on budget incomes and expenses while never considering all the money sitting in slush funds, rainy day funds, required reserves and possibly even unfilled and funded positions. There could be and possibly are hundreds of thousands if not millions of our dollars sitting in accounts collecting interest or dividends. We simply do not know.
If the only information you’ve gotten has been what you’ve been fed by press releases from the County Administration, the Board of Supervisors, or the shallow coverage of the media, then I would say you might be someone that should consider taking more interest in you government and elected officials.
It amazes me how much trust we put in our political parties, elected officials and county administration, we really should watch them all closely. When we give government unchecked power eventually it will control every aspect of our life. We reap what we sow. If we want to see this change then we need to take part in our community and be responsible citizens. Get the facts, read, ask questions, investigate, file FOIA requests do what you have to do to get answers, there is nothing wrong with that. Those in power do not like to have to answer questions and they count on you never asking them.
Larry Ceola
I truly believe that BCES Vollie is a paid BCES employee. And for the record Fincastle has more that 5 active and certified firefighters. Furthermore, the paid staff are now working 24 hours a day Monday thru Friday. Granted the day time help may have been needed, but the night time help is not needed and was not requested. BCES constantly manipulates the run statics in its favor in order to justy the 31 paid staff on the pay roll. They often do not follow protocol and frequently self dispatch themselves to inflate call statistics. We are only a county of 34,000 not 90,000 like our nieghbors Roanoke County or Roanoke City or 73,000 in Bedford. It goes without saying that we needed paid medics, by the way very few calls go to 3rd and 4th due since the paid folks arrived, and they have been a great addition. The fact that they are cross trained as firefighters is even better. Where we went wrong is hiring the full time paid firefighters on a federal grant. The grant was temporary and now it is our bill to pay, the fed money is gone, end of story. Yes they are paid 33,000 per year, but the reader above left out insurance, FICA/FUTA, retirement etc. So really it cost the county about $50,000 per employee. What is happening her is empire building by the management of BCES and it is on the backs and fears of the citizens of Botetourt County. Maybe someday we will need a large paid department, but that time is not now. The paid management of BCES is running off volunteers in order to forwared their agenda of a fully paid department. Beware Botetourt as your taxes are about to take off.
From page 26 Botetourt CFAR, ” The general fund balance for Bot. County relating to the FY13 budget anticipates an increase of approximately $1.9 million…..The general fund balance increase of $1.9 million includes $1.6 million assigned for future years operations.” The property tax increase was expected to increase county revenue about $2 million. So 80%of the tax increase revenue is pushed into future undisclosed spending. You might have thought it was needed to prevent elementary schools from closing, preserving high school athletics or paying off state mandated retirement benefits. No, I don’t think so it appears it was tucked away to be spent later..Wonder what is planned for that $1.6 million , maybe increase paid ES staff, maybe new ball fields at the Sports Complex…….NEVER WASTE A CRISIS…..
@A real Volunteer, I’m not here to argue who and what is right/wrong, I only posted to give a general insight and answer questions as best I could. I would like to defend myself and say I am not on Botetourt County’s payroll other than the yearly incentive check and I would appreciate the benefit of the doubt considering I never posted anything negative toward either side of this debate. If I was an employee I probably wouldn’t be estimating numbers… I would also like to reiterate that I stated “just in salary” and nothing about the costs of benefits, clothing, general operating expenses, etc. In response to the Fincastle comment, if you happen to re-read my post you will notice I said “supposedly only has 5,” I don’t run with the Fincastle VFD and I don’t keep up with their roster. I was only stating the reasoning the BCES Administration attributed the increase hours to. While I will agree the taxpayers and media have a right to hear why the Volunteer leadership from around the County is upset, I personally can’t comprehend why Volunteers are complaining to the public about manipulation of call statistics and failure to follow dispatch protocols. That’s something that should be dealt with in-house between the Chief’s/Captain’s, BCES & County Administration, and the BoS. Lastly, I am not going to entertain an argument with someone who is supposedly my brother/sister. If you still view me as some sort of enemy, please drop it for the sake of public perception, Fire & Rescue in this County is already at an all time low.
BCES Vollie, I thank you for your service and appreciate your attempt at educating the public.
The reason the volunteers are going public is simple, BCES and the County Administrator are not listening to us. The center piece of our democracy is an open and transparent government. This is open government at its best. If BCES/County would have dealt openly and fairly with the volunteers they would not have to be addressing these issues in a public forum. They chose not to do that and refused to communicate with our volunteer leadership. That is a shame,but that lies squarely in their lap. Maybe now that everything is out in the open we can start to heal and have a better, stronger system of paid/volunteer firefighters/EMTs.
Does anyone know who is in charge of the Buchanan Fire Department? Didn’t the volunteers vote to disband the BVFD? Is the Buchanan Fire Department now under the command of a new volunteer group, the town, the county, a combination of all the above, some of the above or none of the above? I keep reading conflicting reports…Surely someone must know…
Confused Taxpayer ????
@Confused Taxpayer The Roanoke Times wrote an informative (and accurate) article on Buchanan’s transition you can read @ http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/316090
I am not aware if the new volunteer leadership positions have been implemented yet.
This change was more of a back-end consolidation. The fire department is still run 24/7 by the volunteers that were there before. There is, however, a 24/7 career ambulance in Buchanan that assists in both Fire and EMS capacities. The Town now owns the Fire/EMS buildings and carnival grounds. The annual carnival will be run by the Town and the Fire/EMS volunteers with the profits split by all parties. The View has various articles written on those changes.
If you want an official explanation from the County, their contact info can be found @ http://yourbces.org/contact-us/
The Nov. Times (accurate) story says Boyd will appoint the staff…Boyd said the county and the town will fund the department. Boyd said….I thought the supervisors decided funding issues. Ms. Guzi in the Herald said the supervisors are waiting for an audit before moving forward…..Supervisors or Boyd ? How will splitting carnival reveune help the fire department, when they were receiving all carvnival revenue? What is a back-end consolidation?
Sorry even more confused !!!!
Vollie, “back-end consolidation” Are you saying …the county is providing a back-end debt service arrangement?
It looks like my trying to help is only causing more confusion and for that I apologize. If you are so confused and intrigued you can take it up with the folks at the top level, as I have already suggested, they can answer your questions better than I can, after all they are the ones making/approving them and should be held accountable.
What I meant by “back-end consolidation” was that the finished product citizens see when they dial for help in Buchanan wouldn’t change. The volunteer firefighters still show up on their red trucks and handle the emergency present like they did before. Instead, the only changes were behind the scenes in the administration of the department. Now the County will fully oversee how funds are spent, instead of relying on the Volunteers to make those decisions (within appropriate item lines) as they do now with other Volunteer ES entities. Obviously, Buchanan VFD’s previous administration left the department in a large amount of debt (or at least continued to carry it). This was one of the reasons the Volunteers claimed to relinquish control to the County. Was this a “back-end debt service arrangement”? I personally don’t think this was some sort of shady bail out deal. If anything, it at least prevented the VFD from defaulting. With the right administrative leadership, Buchanan Fire could have steered through this debt in under a decade, assuming the carnival continued to have its usual success. What the County’s action plan is to solve Buchanan’s debt and the course in which they steer that agency (along with the others under their control) is unbeknownst to me and where many concerns are at the Volunteer level.
A growing number of citizens have approached the county and the media about an independent audit of the former Buchanan Volunteer Fire Department and its finances including what the county/ EMS assumed in debt. It probably would be the best way to settle the discussion on what happened and why. Transparency in government is always best. When things are kept under wraps it makes us more curious as to why.
Sounds like BCES Vollie is even confused. I bet if you asked our County Supervisors they are also confused. It’s been nearly four months since the BVFD voted to dissolve and it’s not clear, Who did what and what exactly they did? The Good Book says, “ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
@Confused Taxpayer, I would not describe myself as “confused” regarding this topic. I would say a lack of transparency between the BCES Administration and everyone else involved is where this rift is stemming from. As Cathy mentioned the best government is a transparent one. The Board of Supervisors, County Administration, and Volunteers aren’t confused, they’re not being told the whole story by the BCES Administration. If you called up Director Boyd today, I would bet that if you asked him what’s the one thing he would have done better from the start, it would be to communicate more effectively. From my perspective, the BCES Administration comes off as running by some secret agenda that fails to prioritize issues and wants volunteers out. There was a plan written in 2003 and updated in 2008 regarding Emergency Services. That plan is now outdated and has only been somewhat followed.
I could rant about this all day, but in order to fix things, we need constructive criticism, so here is mine. Once this Buchanan issue is straightened out, the BoS and Guzi need to immediately fund an update to the plan. The plan should be updated every 5 years and its objectives should be strictly followed and met by the ES Admins, with any deviations/new priorities announced and agreed upon by the parties. Within that plan, objectives need to be set to help restore the agencies that heavily rely on County assistance through staffing or administration (Troutville EMS, Buchanan EMS, Buchanan Fire, and Fincastle Fire) to a strong volunteer status. The idea that this County can support even one station as primarily paid, with supplemental volunteers is fiscally irresponsible. In my frank opinion, the Botetourt County government has been virtually useless in gaining volunteers. Have they mailed letters to the citizens and explained what happens without an adequate amount of vollies (http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/314429)? Are there any advertisements (other than outside the fire house) to gain more volunteers? Is there a Volunteer Coordinator position? No to all. Botetourt, I don’t need a $300 dollar appreciation check and a pat on the back. I need you to address my concerns and provide the necessary resources to allow me do what I signed up for.
Hey Vollie…those are not words of confusion….”the truth has set you free” We the citizens must step up and get informed, get involved, require accountability from OUR representatives, demand transparency . We the citizens must assume the responsibility for our own governance.
“A nation ( county) that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation ( county) that is afraid of its own people.” John F. Kennedy
Ladies and Gents, there’s a Board of Supervisors Meeting on Tuesday Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. The public has the right to speak and all you have to do is fill out a little form. Why don’t some of you folks who have been asking me to ask, come on out and ask the question about the Buchanan Volunteer Fire Department and all of your other concerns to the people in charge? My, oh my! I will report the heck out of it as I am sure will the other reporter in the room!
Career” Firefighter/EMS that person made it their life’s work not a “Volunteer” who’s “Hobby” is picking & choosing the calls they get to run. If you think I’m stirring the pot. I dare you to buy a scanner and listen for (1) month. Listen to the “Volunteers” turn out for the GLORY calls (accident w/injury or entrapment, structure fire) but an elderly person w/flu like symptoms or back pain, that sometimes goes to 3rd or 4th due…
Okay, as a volunteer EMT this really upsets me. I would love to know what scanner you are listening to. Fincastle Rescue has responded to many of these calls you are saying we are not responding to. you should have listened to your scanner in the past 24 hours. As volunteers we responded to four calls in last nights snow storm. We did not do this for glory but for our citizens. Also most of our career staff started out as VOLUNTEERS! I Hope you put some serious thought into what i have said. To better serve our community as a volunteer, I run one night a week as along with 24 hours weekend time. And as for running back and forth across the county if you listen to your “Scanner” you would hear that we do it as well.
I hope I understood right last night at the FVRS/county meeting both paid and volunteer went to a call. I understood that sometimes because it is a medic verses EMT issue. That would deal with advanced life support. I have not noticed that these Fincastle volunteer folks are looking for glory. It looks like to me that one backs up the other.
Wow wish I had seen this article sooner. First of all I ran as a volunteer EMT for 10 years. I never picked and chose my calls. I remember vividly being out during a weeknight for a sunburn that had called 911. I’m also a nurse and had to work the next morning! I also have 2 young children that I left early or were late to many of their functions becaus of calls that I didn’t pick and choose. If you don’t remember there was a 4 million dollar shortfall in the budget last year?! Do you really think we can afford more paid staff? Or administration? The volunteers are “free” more or less and the county should be doing more to recruit them then worrying about the paid staff. Last year they were looking at SHUTTiNG down a school because they had no money or doing away with the rec program because they had no funds! The volunteers are much needed and please listening to a scanner give you NO clue about the real picture of a call. The public needs to be educated on what happens and what your volunteers do to make sure calls are covered. The volunteers were running calls long before the paid staff and hopefully will continue with that for many years to come. I know first hand that there are some of the board of supervisors that do not support volunteers in the least. I’ve been very amused at how the county administration has been towards volunteers and the county budget. This year will be very interesting in deed.
As a volunteer with both fire and rescue in the Botetourt area I must say we need to come together. In an earlier post someone mentioned Eagle Rock and Glen Wilton only getting 10% of total calls. That is probably true. They don’t cover the interstate like the southern county stations due. However, Eagle Rock VFD has truly dedicated personnel. Several are fortunate enough to work for Gala Industries who allow them to leave work, handle the rescue or fire call and return to work and make up the time. Other businesses in the county do not offer that luxury and I don’t know how many of the volunteers would take advantage of it if they did. In the rural areas, like Eagle Rock, the volunteers respond to an extremely high percentage of the calls without paid crew necessary. Regardless of the time of day, the weather, they leave the comfort of their beds, they leave their job, their families, their meals and go help the citizens. WHY? Because they joined the departments to help the community (their neighbors). It doesn’t matter if its a glory call where everybody and his brother show up to see what’s going on and to stand around and watch. Eagle Rock Fire and Rescue are there if you wreck your car or if you just need help getting off the floor, if your house is on fire or just alarm system goes off. They do it all. They care about the community, they care about the county. They do it with fewer people than any other departments with the exception of maybe Glen Wilton. You see the same people every time. If the entire county could fill their stations with loving, caring, responsible personnel like them, we would not any paid crews. And in response to the statement “I would rather have a paid person rather than someone who does it for a hobby” I was at a few of those calls with the paid crew and heard them repeatedly stating to the patient “you don’t really need to go to the hospital now do you” I know of several paramedic calls the paid crew talked out of transporting just to have the volunteers respond a few hours later and take into the hospital. Open your eyes Botetourt, things aren’t always what you hear on a scanner. As far as the administration of the emergency services goes, simply put :too many chiefs not enough indians. If you take those administrative personnel and their salaries and put it towards having just paid FF/paramedics who also do some training the money would be better spent. Everyone wants a title and an office. Take away the office, the titles, the “B—S—” give them a laptop and let them hit the streets with the volunteers. Working together side by side and getting along!
With reference to Larry Ceola’s post of January 30, 2013, based on the votes and comments often made by some of our supervisors, I don’t think citizens are alone in not fully understanding or knowing what is going on in our county. Like most boards, the supervisors depend and base their decisions on the “feed” they get from the top and we all know numbers and facts can say what we want by omission or whatever. In all fairness to the board members, the amount of time it would take to be fully informed would be enormous and if they do this, they probably should just apply for the county administrator’s job and get paid accordingly.