Thursday, August 26, 2010
Fire Department Implements New Policy Designed To Cut Expenses
Lawrenceburg Fire Chief Don Kelly indicates that he has implemented a new police designed to save his department a considerable amount normally spent on false alarm calls.
Kelly told members of the Lawrenceburg Board of Mayor and Council during their meeting Thursday morning that in the past, approximately 48% of all calls answered by his department turn out to be false alarms. In order to maintain the department’s ISO (Insurance Service Office) rating (the rating by which insurance agencies establish premiums for an area), the department had been required to respond fully to all calls.
Kelly recently learned that ISO had made changes in their grading system, relaxing some of the requirements in order to assist areas that were being bombarded with false alarm calls. Now, instead of requiring that all units respond to every call, ISO allows for one fire truck, staffed with a minimum of two firemen, to respond to the scene, assess the situation, then call for remaining units when needed.
While in the past response time was judged by the time the call as actually received, future response time will begin when the initial team dispatched calls for assistance.
Kelly told council members that he implemented the change on Wednesday. The change, he said, should drastically cut excessive overtime pay. Overtime payments in his department, Kelly said, should be “cut in half or more” as a result of the new procedure.
Members of the council then approved an ordinance designed to further cut false alarm calls. The ordinance, approved on first reading in January, then deferred, establishes a schedule of fees to be charged in connection with false emergency calls “not caused by a violent act of nature.” The ordinance, which takes effect immediately, should further lessen the load of false alarm calls answered by both the fire and police departments.
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