Lee County Commission gets public safety update

LEESBURG — Nearly six months after the Lee County Board of Commissioners blended the county’s fire and EMS services under the new umbrella of the Lee County Public Safety department, county leaders got a quick update last week on the new department’s progress from interim Director Wesley Wells.

At the commission’s regular meeting, Wells, who was hired as the interim director of the new department shortly after it was formed on Aug. 23, informed commissioners that the combination of the two services has not only gone smoothly, it has brought about positive change among employees.

“We feel like since we have united the fire and EMS services under the umbrella of Public Safety, we have brought a lot more camaraderie back to both sides,” said Wells. “They’re getting along a lot better than they have in the past, they’re working together much better and it’s led into more cross-training from the respect of using each other’s equipment more freely and feeling more at ease with each other on the scenes.

“We’re seeing more back-up to each other’s teams. Fire is assisting EMS a lot more, and EMS is in turn assisting firetrucks a lot more when they arrive on the scene.”

The blending of firefighters and paramedics and having each cross-train so that the entire Public Safety team is equipped to handle both fire and EMS calls was a source of concern when the two departments were combined. But Wells said thus far the two groups have not only been able to develop good rapport, they’ve also had success with their cross-training requirements.

As of Tuesday, Wells said the county had all 14 of its firefighters complete EMT-B training, with some already passing the certification testing. Their training will continue in the coming year, and the paramedics will begin their firefighter training as well.

“We are also planning on entering the EMT-A program, which is next-level training for the EMTs,” said Wells. “We expect to put that plan together and have them enter that program in the next couple of months, as well as start the paramedics back into firefighter training since we’ve had some, through attrition, who are not firefighter certified.”

Wells said training of all types has been a focus in the past few months, with the department also adding additional training requirements and reorganizing the way internal training is conducted.

“We’ve also revamped our training program to meet the needs and requirements of both services and started conducting a whole lot more training sessions,” the director said. “So when y’all see the firetrucks and ambulances either at an off-site location or gathered at one location, it is for the purpose of necessary, required training that they have to do so that we’re better prepared to respond to emergencies within Lee County.”

In addition to conducting employee training, the Public Safety department has also completed extensive fire safety training in the community, with more than 1,500 students and nearly 250 adults receiving fire safety education.

“We have conducted fire safety and education programs as well as fire extinguisher classes,” Wells said. “We made contact with 1,560 students within the Lee County School System this year to provide fire safety education for the students to take back home to their parents.

“In addition to that, we have entered many businesses, upon request, to conduct fire extinguisher training to explain how fire acts, what happens with fire, and the need and the ability to use fire extinguishers.”

While formal training for the community and personnel has been an important focus for the department, Wells said leadership has also retooled some of the department’s staffing to ensure that veteran personnel are paired with employees with less time of service.

Additionally, firefighters and EMTs are being regularly shifted to different stations so that all personnel will have a better understanding of the county geography.

“We have rotated personnel through their stations to accommodate the opportunities to better learn the territories throughout the county so that we don’t have trucks responding to streets or zones two or three zones over and not be familiar with where those streets or territories lie,” Wells said. “We’ve also done the transfer to better match our personnel so that we now have a better seasoned person with a less experienced person instead of vice versa where we may have a couple of inexperienced people on the same truck.

“So, we’ve tried to spread out our resources and better accommodate our citizens.”

When the decision was made to combine fire and EMS services, one of the driving factors was money, and Wells said in his report that the Public Safety department, which also includes the county’s 911 center, has realized some savings while also making some personnel changes.

Wells said that Trevin Halverson has been promoted to administrative assistant and training coordinator in the 911 center, and vacant positions have been filled with part-time employees to make sure coverage models are met while also reducing cost. Additionally, the department has realized savings through better scheduling within EMS.

“We have reduced their overtime in 911 as well as hired to fill vacant positions and hired part-time personnel who can fill the voids when we have some call-outs and vacation week usage,” said Wells. “With that, we’ve saved over 300 hours of scheduled pay hours in the EMS service throughout the past 12 pay cycles.

“That has created a savings for Lee County. That is through time that is used by personnel for either sick leave use or vacation leave use, and we’ve utilized dual-trained firefighter personnel and part-timers to reduce that expenditure for the taxpayers of Lee County.”

Wells estimates savings to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500 to $4,000.

Looking forward, Wells told the commission that the department is in the process of upgrading all of the county’s radios to the new Motorola P25 system, which will benefit fire, EMS and police services. That change should be complete, Wells said, in the next 90-120 days.