CARES Director Updates Fire Territory Board On Program
May 2, 2023 at 9:38 p.m.
By David [email protected]
CARES (Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services) Director and EMS Chief Chris Fancil provided the board with a CARES update two-sided flyer prepared by CARES Coordinator Mikaela Bixler.
The front of the flyer broke out some of the highlights for April. Needs reported to CARES by community members included mental health services, transportation, long-term housing, elder care, general support, rent assistance, utility assistance, in-home services, grief support, medical equipment and medication management.
“We’re getting referrals from the police department, the sheriff’s office. We recently got one from the mayor’s office. We had someone come into City Hall that was having some issues and was needing some assistance so Mikaela responded to that and dealt with him, making sure he got access to the resources he needed,” Fancil said.
He said they were a little excited about May being Mental Health Month and there is a lot of discussion going on about mental health in the community.
“We’re working on quite a few things behind the scenes that we’re not quite ready to talk about yet with some partnerships, so that’s exciting,” Fancil said.
One of the things Bixler put on the back side of the flyer is that they’re trying to set up National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) presenting “NAMI In Our Own Voice” this spring in Warsaw.
“We want to actually put together - bring anybody who wants to come and have NAMI, they do virtual presentations. Just talking about living with mental illness, being a family member of someone with mental illness and how you can get through that, the resources that are available and things that we can do as a community to help those people that are dealing with that kind of thing,” Fancil explained.
He said they talked to Bowen Center about it and they were very supportive of CARES offering that presentation.
“Our goal, eventually, will be to try to get maybe some more local support groups for people who are dealing with mental illness in their own families. And just letting people know that we are a community that supports each other and want to be here to help each other,” Fancil said.
Some of the things Bixler has been dealing with, Fancil told the board, included setting people up with mental health services and navigating them to the resources that they need, as well as some general community resources navigations.
“We deal with people who maybe don’t have a place to live or don’t have food or don’t have money for utilities, need a home repair. We’re trying to navigate all those folks into those resources as we can. A lot of different things going on,” Fancil said.
Central Dispatch has called CARES to visit with people who seem to be having issues instead of calling police or an ambulance if they don’t think there’s a safety concern.
In other business, WWFT Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger’s request to apply for the Indiana State Department of Homeland Security grant for $10,946 was unanimously approved. The funds, if the grant is awarded, would be used to purchase lumber for structural collapse shoring training and new equipment for structural collapse, rope rescue and vehicle extrication.
Bolinger said it is a reimbursement grant.
“The biggest (reason for applying for the grant) is improving our next generation of collapse rescuers. The Covid years kind of put us behind, and us being a part of a bigger team in the district that used to have anywhere between 120 to 150 members, we’re down to about 50 or 60, so that’s what this lumber does. It helps us train the next group of people,” Bolinger said.
He said they’re getting ready to train their third group as far as structural collapse, probably in 2024, as there are some prerequisite classes the firefighters have to take first.
The notice of award for the grant will be in October or November.
Brandon Schmitt, board member, said the 50 or 60 members was a shocking number.
“I totally understand with Covid shutting everything down. I was talking to a couple guys and they were saying that they’re trying to get things going again after a period of inactivity because of Covid. It’s good to hear that’s starting up again,” Schmitt said.
Fire Chief Brian Mayo said he’s done a lot of training in his past at other fire departments with Warsaw team members. Covid was one setback, but retirement and attrition also has an effect on it.
“The fire service is going to be in bad shape in a couple years if we don’t continue to bring in a wave of new people to train them and get them up to speed because the knowledge that people are taking out when they leave” is big, Mayo said.
The WWFT has two retirements coming up this year and those two firefighters are taking over 40-50 years of knowledge with them.
Schmitt asked if there was some interest in structural collapse shoring training among the newer firefighters. Bolinger said there was and there’s about six or seven guys working to get through trench and structural collapse training.
The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the grant application at their April 21 meeting.
The WWFT board also approved the employment agreement with Mayo, who has been on the job for about a month. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the agreement at their April 21 meeting. Fire territory attorney Andrew Grossnickle told the territory board that it was a standard agreement and he recommended that they approve it.
The agreement is for two years. If at some time he is relieved of duty, as long as it’s not for cause, Mayo would get a 12-week severance package. Mayo replaced Garrett Holderman as fire chief after Holderman resigned after one year to move back to Arizona. Mayo moved back to Indiana from South Carolina to become the fire chief.
CARES (Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services) Director and EMS Chief Chris Fancil provided the board with a CARES update two-sided flyer prepared by CARES Coordinator Mikaela Bixler.
The front of the flyer broke out some of the highlights for April. Needs reported to CARES by community members included mental health services, transportation, long-term housing, elder care, general support, rent assistance, utility assistance, in-home services, grief support, medical equipment and medication management.
“We’re getting referrals from the police department, the sheriff’s office. We recently got one from the mayor’s office. We had someone come into City Hall that was having some issues and was needing some assistance so Mikaela responded to that and dealt with him, making sure he got access to the resources he needed,” Fancil said.
He said they were a little excited about May being Mental Health Month and there is a lot of discussion going on about mental health in the community.
“We’re working on quite a few things behind the scenes that we’re not quite ready to talk about yet with some partnerships, so that’s exciting,” Fancil said.
One of the things Bixler put on the back side of the flyer is that they’re trying to set up National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) presenting “NAMI In Our Own Voice” this spring in Warsaw.
“We want to actually put together - bring anybody who wants to come and have NAMI, they do virtual presentations. Just talking about living with mental illness, being a family member of someone with mental illness and how you can get through that, the resources that are available and things that we can do as a community to help those people that are dealing with that kind of thing,” Fancil explained.
He said they talked to Bowen Center about it and they were very supportive of CARES offering that presentation.
“Our goal, eventually, will be to try to get maybe some more local support groups for people who are dealing with mental illness in their own families. And just letting people know that we are a community that supports each other and want to be here to help each other,” Fancil said.
Some of the things Bixler has been dealing with, Fancil told the board, included setting people up with mental health services and navigating them to the resources that they need, as well as some general community resources navigations.
“We deal with people who maybe don’t have a place to live or don’t have food or don’t have money for utilities, need a home repair. We’re trying to navigate all those folks into those resources as we can. A lot of different things going on,” Fancil said.
Central Dispatch has called CARES to visit with people who seem to be having issues instead of calling police or an ambulance if they don’t think there’s a safety concern.
In other business, WWFT Assistant Chief Aaron Bolinger’s request to apply for the Indiana State Department of Homeland Security grant for $10,946 was unanimously approved. The funds, if the grant is awarded, would be used to purchase lumber for structural collapse shoring training and new equipment for structural collapse, rope rescue and vehicle extrication.
Bolinger said it is a reimbursement grant.
“The biggest (reason for applying for the grant) is improving our next generation of collapse rescuers. The Covid years kind of put us behind, and us being a part of a bigger team in the district that used to have anywhere between 120 to 150 members, we’re down to about 50 or 60, so that’s what this lumber does. It helps us train the next group of people,” Bolinger said.
He said they’re getting ready to train their third group as far as structural collapse, probably in 2024, as there are some prerequisite classes the firefighters have to take first.
The notice of award for the grant will be in October or November.
Brandon Schmitt, board member, said the 50 or 60 members was a shocking number.
“I totally understand with Covid shutting everything down. I was talking to a couple guys and they were saying that they’re trying to get things going again after a period of inactivity because of Covid. It’s good to hear that’s starting up again,” Schmitt said.
Fire Chief Brian Mayo said he’s done a lot of training in his past at other fire departments with Warsaw team members. Covid was one setback, but retirement and attrition also has an effect on it.
“The fire service is going to be in bad shape in a couple years if we don’t continue to bring in a wave of new people to train them and get them up to speed because the knowledge that people are taking out when they leave” is big, Mayo said.
The WWFT has two retirements coming up this year and those two firefighters are taking over 40-50 years of knowledge with them.
Schmitt asked if there was some interest in structural collapse shoring training among the newer firefighters. Bolinger said there was and there’s about six or seven guys working to get through trench and structural collapse training.
The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the grant application at their April 21 meeting.
The WWFT board also approved the employment agreement with Mayo, who has been on the job for about a month. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the agreement at their April 21 meeting. Fire territory attorney Andrew Grossnickle told the territory board that it was a standard agreement and he recommended that they approve it.
The agreement is for two years. If at some time he is relieved of duty, as long as it’s not for cause, Mayo would get a 12-week severance package. Mayo replaced Garrett Holderman as fire chief after Holderman resigned after one year to move back to Arizona. Mayo moved back to Indiana from South Carolina to become the fire chief.
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