Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Board members on Wednesday, Jan. 21, approved a contract that will provide screening for work-related illnesses among department staff and volunteers.
Board members unanimously gave provisional approval to a $61,636 contract with Pennsylvania-based Professional Health Services to provide National Fire Protection Association-compliant physicals and cancer screenings for SHFAD’s firefighters for two years.
The project involves screening firefighters to identify potentially life-threatening conditions such as cancer and other illnesses related to exposure to hazardous materials while responding to emergencies.
Battalion Chief Shannon Pettner, who organized the project, said the company would
SHFAD was awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant award through FEMA in September. The $126,857 grant gives the department funding towards a $133,200 project, with a department match of roughly $6,000.
Pettner said the department received three responses to a request for proposals, all from out-of-state firms. She said the scope of work proposed by each was comparable. The other bids were from Life Scan Wellness of Tampa, Fla., for $71,040 and $67,250 from 1582 Medical Group of Sparks, Nev.
She said both PHS and Life Scan have been used by various departments in Oregon.
Pettner told the board that she wanted to get the contract approved as soon as possible so that the screenings could be scheduled before fire season starts.
Board Member Rob Younger said that since what the bidders were offering was largely equitable, it made sense to go with the lowest bidder, PHS. He made a motion, contingent on Pettner contacting other Oregon agencies, including Jackson County and Astoria, which have contracted with the firm, to move ahead.
Younger’s motion included the contingency that if the response from other departments wasn’t good, the district could choose another alternative at a future board meeting.
Wildland Fire Defense Coordinator
Wildland Supervisor Christian Whitfield reported to the board that the district is well along in its search for a coordinator to manage the paperwork aspects of the Linn Wildlife Mitigation Group, a wildland defense effort headed by Sweet Home, that will involve agencies throughout east Linn County. LWMG is funded by an $8.7 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service.
The full-time coordinator will manage and administer the paperwork and manage the progress reports that will be necessary for the fuels mitigation efforts, as well as helping to organize six community Chipper Days that will be held twice a year at the Cascadia, Crawfordsville and Sweet Home fire stations, and various educational efforts.
Whitfield and Chief Nick Tyler said they had been surprised by the interest the position has generated: 27 people turned in applications.
Whitfield said 15 were interviewed and six finalists will be interviewed this week, with the top candidate(s) moving on to an interview with Tyler.
“We had some very impressive candidates,” he said, noting that he hopes to have a final selection by the end of this week.
Tyler said the applicants included “a lot of fire, law enforcement, hands-on,” as well as grant management experience.
He said the new staffer will be responsible for building a map that will be used by LWMG members, “many different people,” so he said those skills will be important as well as the ability to seek further grant funding to keep the program operational after its initial five-year run.
Tyler said later that the map will track all of the fuels mitigation work that’s being done in the county by SHFAD and other agencies, as well as private landowners and firms.
The goal, he said, is to have a way to identify “potential control lines,” should a fire ignite in east Linn County.
“If we have a fire, where can we catch the fire without it becoming a large fire,” he said, especially if an incident management team comes in.
The map would give fire managers “a head start” in deciding how to fight a large fire, cutting days or weeks off the effort needed to stop it, he said.
In other action, board members:
- Learned from Joel Keesecker of Keesecker Insurance that the district’s insurance costs are increasing by nearly 30% due to the addition of the Wildland Fire Division.
In a report, Keesecker indicated that this year’s cost will be $77,501, compared to $55,972.
“The main driving force for that rate is payroll for wildland,” he said, adding that different insurers, such as Oregon Workers’ Compensation Insurance and Benefits (SAIF) categorize wildland firefighting differently, and charge different rates. SAIF, he said, charges 3½ times what the district’s insurer, Special District Insurance Services, charges for that activity. SDIS categorizes wildland firefighters similar to logging, he said.
- Learned that the seismic upgrade project at Station 23 in Crawfordsville is nearly complete. After Assistant Fire Chief George Virtue noted that earthquake seismic retrofitting has already been completed at the main fire station and Station 22 in Foster, Keesecker said he would check with insurers to make sure the rates SHFAD is paying reflect that work.
- Heard from Pettner that the district’s effort to purchase used LifePak 15 defibrillators from Portland Fire had come to naught, because Portland became concerned about legal liability in the deal.
“We don’t have that opportunity any more,” Pettner said, adding that Portland had offered to give Sweet Home cables, cases and batteries, which SHFAD can use. She said LifePak batteries cost $600 apiece, and the district has to budget for five to seven of them a year because they age out.
Battery life, she said, “becomes problematic when you’re on a call for several hours.”
Pettner told board members she would start looking for grants to finance the purchase of new LifePaks, which can range in cost from about $20,000 to more than $50,000 each, depending on the model.
LifePaks are advanced cardiac monitors and defibrillators used by emergency medical personnel to diagnose and treat cardiac emergencies. The devices can record vital signs, monitor cardiac rhythms and deliver defibrillation therapy to restart the heart.
The district has several older Model 12s, which are “obsolete,” Pettner said.
“We can’t get parts. It’s like we’re looking on eBay, hoping to find something.”
- Learned that negotiations with the employees union will start Feb. 12 and appointed Board Member Jim Yon, who was absent, to represent the board in negotiations. Yon had volunteered for that job at an earlier meeting.
- Learned from Ryan Paul, recruitment and retention officer, that district staffers and volunteers completed 5,437 man-hours of training during 2025.
- Agreed to add a monthly report from district Chaplain Michael Caruso in the board’s monthly meeting agenda.
- Learned from Tyler that the district will be looking to add to its water tender fleet after having issues with Tender 21.
“Some of them are getting a little older,” Tyler said, noting that one has a manual transmission which, “as we bring in new folks, that can be a little problematic.”