John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Fire Department Board of Directors asked Fire Department members to form a committee addressing complaints brought against the Fire Department by member volunteers during a regular board meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, 2020, at Fire Station Number One, in Nederland. The board also approved a warranty extension for a command vehicle and permission to move ahead on grant applications.

Fire Chief Rick Dirr and all members of the board attended the meeting including: Chair Henry Zurbrugg, Secretary Raymond Willis, Treasurer Nicholas Brodsky, Joe Evans and Beth Davis, who called in by phone. 

At the end of the meeting, Zurbrugg recognized Nederland Fire Chief Rick Dirr with a February 9, 2020, letter, on behalf of Dirr’s 20th anniversary as chief of the department. During the past 20 years, Dirr has successfully navigated a wide variety of issues, and has continued the management and improvement of the department fire stations and volunteer membership. 

Before approval of the minutes for the January 8, 2020, meeting, Zurbrugg said he had a couple of comments about that meeting. Fire Department member Iain Irwin-Powell represented the Fire Department members who have said that the department lacks standard operation procedures and guidelines, rigorous training and maintenance on vehicles. 

Zurbrugg said he wanted to respond to that and give clarification. He talks with members of the public as well as the department, and board members hear a lot of commentary. They have to be aware of whether people have real issues. 

“At the end of the day, I have responsibility for that,” Zurbrugg said. Before the holidays he heard venting, and a couple of things piqued his interest. 

He suggested redoing the membership survey to find out what the members really think. It would be a reasonable way to go about that. “I think we’re following up,” Zurbrugg said.

Irwin-Powell represented the Fire Department members group at the January 8 meeting, and the board agreed with his handling of it. Irwin-Powell mentioned that membership has a strategic plan, and that there were a couple of emails that were bothersome, Zurbrugg said. 

Irwin-Powell, who was present at the February 5 meeting, said training gives them the confidence to do their job properly. Zurbrugg said the board will go back to the minutes later in the meeting, and the board approved the minutes as written and discussed.

During old business, Zurbrugg said the board has received an email from Irwin-Powell outlining the membership’s top four issues and pointing out that standard operation guidelines and procedures are badly lacking. 

The department needs a process for implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) and Standard Operating Guidelines (SAGS), and a standardized format for continually improving SOPS. Additionally, the department needs a process for formalizing training to enhance safety. 

Irwin-Powell said the training should be extremely thorough, accurate and coherent. Right now, if a volunteer misses training, they can’t make that up. “We will be demonstrating a method to improve training,” he wrote. 

Vehicles are often left with no process for returning it to service, and vehicles are not being maintained up to standards. The department also has a lack of volunteer response at night, he said.

Irwin-Powell said the membership doesn’t feel safe without proper training. They came to training, but it’s not up to the standard they would expect. 

Zurbrugg said the board has talked about creating a subcommittee to deal with these issues including a board member, a volunteer captain, officers and Fire Departments members. Knowing the context, that’s a reasonable request. “In the world I live in, it’s not a great idea to have a lot of people, but a small focus group that would have a lot of buy-in,” he said. 

Irwin-Powell suggested adding another shift captain and said that the process is acceptable as long as they don’t get caught in a cycle that ends with the chief. Zurbrugg said they have to be cognizant of the chain of command, and it has to be transparent to make it work.

Chief Dirr said he searched for SOG and SOP policy submissions and didn’t get any. “I have no official record of anything brought up to me,” he said. “Moving forward, I’m going to continue to trouble-shoot problems. I thought you were coming forth with the two SOGs tonight.” 

Irwin-Powell said he wants to start producing them and thinking about which training they want to put guides in for and developing the calendar. It needs to be a continuance process.

Zurbrugg said the committee should be formed within a week, with a finalization timeline of Friday, March 27, which would give the committee four or five weeks. The board could address the committee’s finding at the April meeting, with a follow up at the May meeting.

Brodsky suggested that Irwin-Powell let the board know if things are stalling. Irwin-Powell said he will let the board know who has been selected for the committee and when meetings will be. 

Brodsky said, “Let’s move on and do it in a good way.” Fire Chief Rick Dirr said, “If everybody did their jobs, we wouldn’t need to have checks and balances, but we need them, and I own this. We have vehicle checklists, but we can’t create a piece of paper every time a truck goes out.”

“The way forward is something on the cell phone, and you can run through a checklist,” Dirr said. Willis said they used to have a checklist on the door of the vehicle. Zurbrugg said he is looking forward to ideas submitted by the committee. 

The board approved a warranty for a command truck at a cost of $2,599, which should last for 17 years. The board approved moving ahead with an EMS Grant for $58,000 with a 50 percent match of 28,800 for radio batteries. 

The next meeting of the Nederland Fire Department Board of Directors will be on March 4, 2020, at Fire Station One, starting at 7 p.m.

(Originally published in the February 13, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)