Cambria Fire Department, Cal Fire, Health District mentioned in report
A county grand jury report issued Tuesday, April
7, urges Cambria’s various emergency service providers to consider merging or
sharing services, personnel and locations to reduce overhead costs and make
more money available for new equipment, training and other operations.
Negotiations have been underway for some time
about some of those topics — such as combining ambulance/fire protection
services provided by the Cambria Fire Department and Cambria Community
Healthcare District, both of which can provide advanced life support via
paramedics.
Those negotiations currently are in abeyance,
according to Michael Thompson, a director on the Cambria Community Services
District board. (The fire department is part of the services district.)
Jerry Gruber, the CCSD’s general manager,
said he thought the grand jury’s report was “well written.” He said he, board
President Gail Robinette, Vice President Muril Clift and Counsel Tim Carmel will
work on a response they plan to present to the district board at its April 23
meeting, along with a response to the March 17 grand jury report on the fire
risk exacerbated by the large number of dead and dying Monterey pines in
Cambria’s forest.
Both responses must be submitted within 90
days of when the related report was issued.
Robert Sayers, healthcare district
administrator, said he wasn’t surprised by the recommendations, and that it’s
“at the top of our list” for the district’s next strategic planning session,
which he expects will happen within this fiscal year.
“We’re taking it (the recommendation on
negotiations) very seriously. … I realize it’s been going on for a long time,
and there’s a lot of frustration over that.”
He also said there might be a silver-lining
result from the report: More public interest and involvement in healthcare
district matters and strategic planning.
The report also notes that some of the town’s
emergency equipment, such as ambulances and a fire engine, are outdated by
industry standards, and the agencies that own them (the healthcare district and
fire department) haven’t set aside funds to replace them.
Another grand jury recommendation is that the
services district should explore contracting with Cal Fire to handle Cambria
Fire Department’s responsibilities. Cal Fire also has a Cambria station.
The services district has explored that
possibility several times in the past, with Cal Fire giving presentations to
the community in several venues. Previous decisions have been to retain the
local fire department.
Robert Lewin, this county’s Cal Fire chief,
said in an email interview that the two fire agencies “enjoy a strong and
cooperative relationship in our joint mission, fire protection, particularly
during these drought conditions. Cal Fire has a strict policy of not soliciting
cooperative agreements for fire protection. If the CSD is interested in an
agreement for fire protection from Cal Fire, it will require them to take
action to request it.”
The report says those consolidation
opportunities could help “reduce overhead by merging organizations and use the
savings to establish equipment replacement funds or to pay for other activities
such as training, fire prevention and public education.”
Community members have voted several times to
pay extra fees and taxes in order for Cambria and the North Coast to have its
own, in-town fire department and ambulance/healthcare service. Among the
reasons voters cited during those elections were the area’s high percentage of
senior citizens, two-lane access highways and the North Coast’s remote
location, about 30 minutes away from hospitals and other emergency service
providers.
The services and healthcare districts are
required to respond to selected findings in the report, which can be found at http://slocourts.net/downloads/grand_jury/reports/2014/Making_the_Case_for_Efficiency.pdf.
Workshop planned
A coalition of first-responder agencies will
present an emergency preparedness workshop from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 9,
at the Cambria Veterans Memorial Building, 1000 Main St.
The forum will tell North Coast residents how
to prepare themselves for wildfire, earthquake and other potential disasters,
along with how to plan for and accomplish evacuation, should that become
necessary. The information is considered crucial as the state goes into a
fourth year of drought and Cambria's Monterey pine forest is dying off at an
alarming rate. Many homes are situated within parts of the rare, aging forest.
April
7, 2015
The
Cambrian
By Kathe Tanner
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