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Millville First Responders have doubled size, need more funding

February 12th, 2011 Posted in Opinion

By Mariah Noble

MILLVILLE– The City Council heard the 2010 report from Dave Davenport, representative of Nibley-Millville First Responders, at Thursday’s meeting.

The council also discussed changes on the Planning and Zoning Commission and set a public hearing for concerns about the the city’s new FEMA Flood Plain Ordinance on March 10 at 7:15 p.m. The ordinance states that in the future, the city will automatically adopt new flood ordinances from the state without voting on it.

Davenport told the council about the improvement in efficiency and organization of the program last year. “It’s good to be here and be able to say that from our six last year, we now have 12 members,” Davenport said

Davenport said the squad works 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. He said in 2010 there were 730 shifts, and they were only out of service for 2 hours and 45 minutes the entire year.

“If anyone picks up a phone and dials 911 in Nibley or Millville, at least one of our guys answers,” Davenport said. “We’re generally the first ones on the scene.”

He said at least one member of the group stays in the area, even on holidays. They are the only EMS squad in the area who use their own vehicles, he said, and the work is entirely volunteer.

“All except me have a full-time job in addition to this,” Davenport said. “We feel honored and privileged to do what we do.”

Davenport also talked about the lack of funding his squad gets. He said most other EMS teams work with fire departments and get more funding that way. He said the department usually gets $5,000 from Nibley, $3,000 from Millville, about $3,,300 from the county, and is reimbursed from the state for a little over $1,000.

The council listened as he explained how the other emergency personnel decided to switch to more expensive radios this year, and the First Responders had to spend their cash reserves buying them so they could stay in communication. “We don’t get a lot of money,” Davenport said.

He requested that in the future, Millville cost-share of $1,000 with Nibley to pay for part of the radios.

“I don’t want an answer right now,” Davenport said. “But I didn’t want to wait to bring it up.”

Aside from Davenport’s request, the council approved Susan Barker for a business license.

Councilman Mike Jessop also discussed changes to the planning and zoning commission.

He proposed that Mark Thacker be moved from an alternate on the commission to a full-time member. Thacker will replace Dave Rowell who has verbally resigned from his position.

The council decided they would request money for swings in the RAPZ grant application. City Planner Meagan Hadfield said many people had approached her about the swings.

City Recorder Rose Mary Jones said the office copier was broken. The council decided to replace it with a new one in hopes to save money on future problems.

NW

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