A message from the Mayor about Fire Services

BY

The following is a message from Canyon Lake Mayor Jordan Ehrenkranz:

“Residents have been expressing concern about the state of the City’s Fire Services. I would like to take the time to reassure residents that the City is still covered for emergency medical and fire services.

“Medical services (which are a significant portion of emergency calls by City residents) will remain with the same provider: American Medical Response (AMR). AMR has a contract to service emergency medical calls countywide. Their contract has response time requirements, and Canyon Lake has one of the shortest response time requirements in the contract.

“The City has hired an Interim Fire Chief. The City also has a majority of the equipment at Station 60, including the fire truck. At the July 16, 2015 Special Meeting, the City Council considered additional job descriptions, a salary schedule, and lease agreement for the fire station.

“City staff is diligently working on putting in the necessary items to fully staff the station, taking a task that is normally a six- to 12-month process and trying to implement it in four to six weeks. In addition to working on fully staffing the station, the City is evaluating other options available to provide services to our residents.

“Declaring the Local Emergency has allowed the City the time to move toward setting up cooperative agreements for mutual or automatic aid, dispatch and others, while st affing up a City department.

“In the meantime, our residents are safe. If there is a fire-related emergency, a fire engine will be dispatched from a surrounding station (the same stations that responded to many of our emergency calls in the past) under the mutual aid provided during the City’s declared local emergency.

“I would like to reassure residents that the City is taking any and all steps necessary to provide important emergency services to our residents, and will continue to do so.

Council Special Meeting

The Canyon Lake City Council held a special meeting yesterday, July 16. The City Council was sche duled to approve renewal of the “State of Local Emergency,” as well as go over implementation of the City’s new Fire Department staffing, lease and estimated timelines. On the agenda were:

• Approval of Fire Chief, Fire Captain, Fire Engineer and Firefighter Job Descriptions
• Approval of Resolution No. 2015-21 Amending the Salary and Wage Schedule for Employees of the City for Fiscal Year 2015-16 by adding Fire Department Positions.
• Approval of Lease Agreement with the CLPOA for lease of Fire Station 60.
• Update Regarding Estimated Timeline.