The Lebanon Fire District swore-in new fire members and reported some concerns during its board meeting on Tuesday, June 8.
Training Division Chief Russell Duerr presented yellow helmets to Lebanon’s spring academy graduates, and introduced the seasonal wildland crew during the meeting.
The spring fire academy took place during the past two months, which this year included agencies from other jurisdictions, including Brownsville, Halsey and Monroe. Duerr explained the support volunteers and trainees wear a black helmet during the academy, which indicates they cannot go interior to a burning structure.
“Here at Lebanon, all of our firefighters who are cleared to enter a burning building, they receive their yellow helmet,” he said. “That way, the incident commander knows that they can enter the building. It’s a big deal in the fire service, our tradition and symbolisms.”
Lebanon volunteers who accepted their yellow helmets that evening were Frances Crummer-Olson, Bryce Bowers, Arron Davis, Joshua McIntire, Matthew Neilson and Gunner Kometz, as well as Brandon Ramos, who was not present.
Four seasonal wildland crew members were also introduced and sworn-in. They were Darbie “Gracie” Wascher, Daniel LaVigne, Luis Maciel and Jonathan Sherpa.
The newly established seasonal crew is supported by a $1.2 million CWDG (Community Wildfire Defense Grant) grant over the next five years to train and hire seasonal workers who will do home ignition zone inspections.
“Out in the rural areas where wildfire danger is high, they’re going out and assessing people’s homes, and they’re also working on address markers and community outreach,” Duerr explained.
Financials
Chief Administrative Officer Desiree Barker reported she doesn’t expect the district will “hit the mark” with property tax income by the end of the fiscal year, so they will be a little short in that area, but ambulance revenue has already exceeded their budget, “so we’re doing very well on ambulance revenue this year.”
In Ground Emergency Medical Transportation (GEMT – a federally funded Medicaid program allowing public and nonprofit ambulance and emergency services to receive supplemental payments), LFD is currently short about $346,000.
“It’s just having a real negative impact on our budget,” Barker said.
Fire Chief John Tacy reported he was informed there will be changes to the GEMT funding, essentially that it will gradually decrease until it ends in January 2029. Last year, LFD received about $250,000 in GEMT supplemental payments.
“It’s going to have a huge impact across the whole U.S.,” he said. “I think along with that, we’re going to be seeing some failures in emergency medical services.”
According to Tacy, following a failed levy, Lane Fire Authority recently announced it will be releasing its ambulance service area.
“I think they’re going to be an interesting and informative fire district to keep an eye on, on how things go forward,” Tacy said.
In other business:
- The board approved a contract renewal with the Lebanon Professional Firefighters Union;
- Tacy updated information concerning a complaint about burn messages not being available on time. He learned delays are due to not being able to get in contact with DEQ.
