There was a lot of politcal pressure brought to bear when the volunteer system utilizing military personnel wasn't working out after my VFD pulled out.Quote:
Originally Posted by FWDbuff
The reason was simple ... $$$. The facility was awarded over $!00M to build a National Guard Regional Training Facility (RTI) for the this part of the country which meant jobs and cash outside of the base for the area as once fully operational, it's expected to have 30,000 Guardsman come through the doors each year for weekend and week long classes. In addition, there was other private sector development on the Camp being looked at. Problem is for that to happen they needed fire protection
The VFD was asked to reconsider and take protection back over. They said no.
We were asked. We said no.
They asked the VFD again. Nope, again.
Then they came back to us with a whole bunch of local and state officials, and the police jury putting mucho pressure on us due to the $$$$$$ involved. And we did say yes, basically because we knew we really had no choice.
We have a pretty good relationship with the Department of the Military and the National Guard. In fact, we just did vehicle extrication training for some Army Special Forces units. We have a very good relationship with 2 of the companies out there that also manufacture explosives and a descent relationship with a third.
As far as Explo, we told them a few years ago that unless we could get on-site, we would not respond into the facility. They said fine, and the Department of the Military understood, There was another company out there, that has since left, that made white phosphorous flares, and would not allow us in claiming that since they were an Israeli owned company, their facility was on Isreali soil and we had no jurisdiction. We told them the same thing. In fact, the VFD had a fire there a couple of years before they pulled out where they almost lost personnel due to the fact that the company did not disclose that they were storing raw materilas in the vicinity of the fire.
While we make no money off the contract their are benefits. We can take the apparatus off post to use in our district. The facility offers significant training opportunities. As an example we just used some very heavy military vehicles to test airbags for an upcoming replacement purchase. So it does have it's plus side as well.
The hope is that once the RTI is up, the state will pay us to staff the station with at least 2 personnel as run volume will increase. We have been told by local officials that now that things are up and running, we have the option of telling the state that we are turning fire protection back to them with adequate notice. At this point, we have decided to continue to provide protection, at least until the RTI is fully operational..
