Page 6 - The Friday Flyer • July 24, 2015

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A-6 THE FRIDAY FLYER JULY 24, 2015 City Council approves job descriptions . . .
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ment with the Canyon Lake Property
Owners Association for the lease of Fire Station 60, with the agreement that the CLPOA will utilize half of the captain’s office at the station for its own purposes.
The lease cost remains the same as it had been for County Fire: the cost of property taxes and assessments on the property or one dollar, whichever is greater, as well as the requirement that the City cover all maintenance and in- surance costs. The City already owns Engine 60 and some of the equipment at the firehouse.
Citizens in attendance at the July 16 meeting had a number of questions, comments and suggestions, as did the City Council members themselves.
Some questioned why the position of paramedic was not included in the list of job descriptions. Chief Wilson explained that the City cannot afford a paramedic position and that medical response will continue to be supplied by American Medical Response (AMR), which has paramedics. (AMR bills for services ren- dered). It was requested that paramedic be include in the list of job descriptions for the sake of budget analysis.
Another topic of discussion was the necessity of Cooperative Agreements for “automatic aid” and “mutual aid” with neighboring cities. Currently, under the State of Local Emergency, County Fire is authorizing engines to respond to fire emergencies in Canyon Lake. They do not respond to public service calls; however, on occasion, the Emergency Command Center in Perris will dispatch an engine to a medical emergency in Canyon Lake if needed, as occurred last week.
As shown in a fire call this week, the
engines may come from further away than Station 94 and Station 5. (See side- bar.)
With regard to the State of Local Emergency, Chief Wilson says it is tem- porary, and response from allied agen- cies will not continue much longer with- out a contractual agreement whereby the cities whose fire departments respond to Canyon Lake’s emergencies are reim- bursed. The City Council made it clear at the July 16 meeting that it is willing to pay for the responses it receives from outside stations, though an agreement to do so is not yet in place.
After the City has its own Fire De- partment, Cooperative Agreements with neighboring cities will be necessary so that, when the need arises to fight a fire, there is more than one engine avail- able to do so. Cooperative Agreements require time and outside consultation, Wilson explains.
Another requirement that has to be resolved is 911 dispatch services. Chief Wilson says this would need to be ne- gotiated with County Fire, which has the only emergency radio frequencies that can “reach into the bowl,” as he de- scribes Canyon Lake’s topography. He explains that County Fire is not required to provide dispatch services and, in fact has not responded to a request by the City of San Bernardino to provide dis- patch services.
In attendance at the July 16 meeting were a few experienced professionals from Canyon Lake who want to volun- teer their services to get the Fire Depart- ment up and running. Among them were Mike O’Gorman (fire background), Larry Neigel (public safety background) and Dennis Korte (accounting back- ground). It has been noted that there are
some 150 active and retired fire profes- sionals living in Canyon Lake.
A fire chief from Hacienda Heights with 33 years of experience was in at- tendance at the meeting. He said he read about Canyon Lake’s situation and be- lieves the community is in a good posi- tion to have its own Fire Department. He offered advice about hiring retired fire- fighters as well as trainees out of local fire academies. He also provided clarification with regard to mutual aid, and indicated his own interest in being fire chief.
The final item on the meeting agenda was the timeline for getting the Fire De- partment operational. Chief Wilson ex- plains, “This is a six to 12-month process
that we are trying to implement in four to six weeks. It is a herculean effort.”
The issues, he pointed out at the July 16 meeting, are time and budget. The budget won’t be available to the City’s Finance Committee before its next meeting, scheduled for August 4. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for August 12.
“Once a plan is in place and everyone understands the cost involved, the City government and its citizens will have to decide whether that is the direction it wants to take or whether it’s time to disincorporate. Disincorporation itself is a complicated one- to two-year project,” says Wilson.
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Who is responding to Canyon Lake fire calls?
There was a 911 call Monday morning for smoke coming from an electrical outlet at a home in Canyon Lake. The 911 call was received at the Perris Emergency Com- mand Center (ECC), a full-service regional command and control center provid- ing dispatch services to all unincorporated county areas, 21 contract cities and one Community Service District for a total of 93 fire stations.
Following the fire response to Monday’s 911 call, a post went out on a Canyon Lake Facebook page that it took 24 minutes for the first fire engine to arrive at the scene, and 36 minutes for a second engine to arrive. The post was by Station 94 Captain Jeff Roberts who lives in Canyon Lake and has a scanner.
He also commented in his post that the lineup for response to house fires in Can- yon Lake is now “one county fire engine, one Murrieta fire engine, one Corona city fire engine, one Hemet fire engine, one Riverside city fire engine.”
Canyon Lake’s interim Fire Chief Mike Wilson responded to this comment by saying that he had received notification immediately after the 911 call. He said when he received the call from the County, he asked for two engines to respond. They called back to say that a battalion chief and two engines were en route.
The “emergency” turned out to be a malfunctioning A/C unit outside of the struc- ture. Chief Wilson confirmed with the Perris ECC that there was no fire and that the first responder, a battalion chief, was on scene within 13 minutes. It then was up to the battalion chief to make the decision on canceling units, continuing all or some of the units, downgrading the emergency, etc.
Chief Wilson adds, “I have been the main contact for Canyon Lake since June
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