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Evaluating the Coral Springs Fire Department: Part I Medieval Times to the Modern Era January 2000: Over the next few days, I have been given the opportunity to spend some time with the fire departments professionals and volunteers of Station 80, located on Coral Springs Drive. I requested this in order to "See for myself" the state of the union of our fire department, and hopefully to report to you my opinions as to where the citizens now stand when it comes to fire protection. On January 18, I spent time with the "A" team (no relation to the TV show) from 6:00 pm to midnight and I was quite impressed. During the next few days I will add to this article some of my views and thoughts about the people watching out for our safety, protecting our investments from our homes and business to our lives. If you don't want to read on.....I will summarize the department as I have seen it so far...Cool, professional, friendly. Bottom line, is I that I feel safer living in this city now then ever before. However, the details are for my next story, after I gather some more pictures, more thoughts and see more of our Fire Department. For the moment, I offer you the following review of the situation that brought us to this point in time...the great story of our politicians listening to the wrong people but finally doing the right thing. Reviewing the decisions made by our city commissioners concerning the Coral Springs Fire Department over the past year. Perhaps this text book example of a city politicians learning the lessons of life, and a t the same time . Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learnt here for any other municipality is that politicians are not the experts. They do their best given the knowledge presented to them and their own capabilities to understand the situation that they are present with. The Fire Department is a classic case of a City Government making all the wrong =decisions along the way, but coming up with the right decision in the end. Perhaps this lesson was one of good fortune, to the citizens of Coral Springs, and perhaps we were lucky along the way of the path to a fully paid fire department, that no one got hurt. In the end, the citizens got what they wanted....a fully paid 24/7 top notch fire department. Several months ago we started a campaign to try to encourage our City Commissioners to move towards a fully paid fire department. IT seemed logical. After all, we are a city of 118,000 people, with a full time police department, a center for the performing arts, a doggy park. With all of these city features why then wasn't there a fully paid fire department? We were told by the City Commissioners an City Manager that it wasn't needed. Too much money, they said for too little work. They had faith in the Volunteer force, and they stood right behind them. The City Manager and City Commissioners even went so far as saying that the response times were adequate (10-12 minutes) and that they were confident that if any major fires happened within the city they were certain we could handle it. So they convened a SWAT team that looked at all aspects of the city's fire fighting capabilities and determined in their report that more paid fire fighters were needed, and gave there recommendation t move the city to ward a fully paid department supplemented by volunteers. The City Commissioners didn't listen to their own committee and decided they knew better. They came up with a formula to lift any ceilings on payment of stipends to volunteers. A fee things happened after that that put egg on the City and the City Commissioners: 1. Some greedy people made a lot of money under the new system as a few volunteers were running the clock up. Sun sentinel reported it. $3500 on one month for one and $2500 for the other. 2. A Car caught fire 1 block from station 43. No one was at the station. The Sun Sentinel reported that too. Back then, we were living in Medieval times. However, we were about to enter the Modern Age, where operating a fire department requires certain key elements, one of them being a fire department chief. The Modern Age: A safer environment Despite the assurances from the city manager that all was A-OK, the politicians decided that they better start listening to their professionals. They needed a fire chief that can bring this fire under control. Finally the City did the right thing...they hired Chief Don Haupt. Almost 5 months later the new chief has brought us what we needed. A fully paid fire fighting force that is becoming the talk of the town. Just take a look at some of the big achievements that they have accomplished under this direction: 1. Response times are now under 8 minutes instead of the 10-12 maybe minutes before. 2. 4 fire stations are fully in operation 24/7 instead of the only 1 . 3. Moral is back. The fire fighters are happy, and the volunteers and the Pros actually talk t each other now, and they have respect fro one another.. 4. The staff is now mostly paid professionals supplemented by volunteers. Exactly what the SWAT committee recommended. 5. Volunteers must meet the same standards of the professionals. Training, and a minimum amount of time per month in order o have the privilege of serving on the force. 6. He added de-fribulators to every engine, so that in case of a heart stoppage the equipment and trained professional are minutes away in any part of the city. 7. The communication system is improved. 8. The city is safe. Perhaps the biggest achievement from the tax payers point of view is that Chief Haupt ahs done all of this without increasing the city budget. That was totally contrary to the City Mangers statements last year when he foretold of a tax increase that would be needed to bring the same level of fire fighting to us. But, we can't treat the City Manager unfairly as in the end he made the right decision here and hired Chief Haupt! Welcome to the Modern Era.
Reflecting on the past, gave me the experience that the real failure in the system and ultimately its success has been the fact that the City Commissioners are just people like you an I. They take their responsibility seriously and try to do the right thing. Perhaps the reason it took them so long was the wrong information was presented to them or that the issues got too emotional. Emotions cloud peoples thinking. Everyone is capable of making mistakes, but in the end, as long as the right decision is made, we all tend to forget how we got here. That was the purpose of this first part of my review. TO bring us from before to now. During the next week I will focus on the people that make up the Fire Department, what they are about, the conditions they work in, and how they handle the pressure. I will also come up with some recommendations as no system is perfect. I leave you with this item. The major complaint that I have heard from the fire fighters is the motorist. The person that decides not to move out of the way when the fire engine or rescue vehicle is doing its best to get to the call as fast as possible. So move out of the way, to the left or right, just let them pass quickly. It could be your house that is burning!
Taking the emotion out of the issue, let me congratulate the City Commissioners and the City Manager for making the right decision.
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