Comments on: Terrific Tuesday: The chill is not just in the air, Big Daddy

By: Concerned Citizen

Concerned Citizen — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:49:33 +0000

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.

By: citizen 2

citizen 2 — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:56:06 +0000

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!

By: Amused citizen

Amused citizen — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:26:41 +0000

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.

By: Cathy Benson

Cathy Benson — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:43:51 +0000

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.

By: Proud FVRS VOLUNTEER!

Proud FVRS VOLUNTEER! — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:30:13 +0000

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.

By: Cathy Benson

Cathy Benson — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:46:31 +0000

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!

By: Confused Taxpayer

Confused Taxpayer — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:40:04 +0000

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

By: BCES Vollie

BCES Vollie — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:39:48 +0000

@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.

By: Confused Taxpayer

Confused Taxpayer — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:24:08 +0000

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.”

By: Cathy Benson

Cathy Benson — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:41:05 +0000

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.