The hot topic at the Lee County Board meeting wasn’t over zoning permits, and it wasn’t over water issues currently plaguing the County. The Hot button issue was should the firemen and EMS personnel in the County be able to take County vehicles to eat meals during a 24 hour shift.
Firefighters and EMS first need to be divided into 2 separate groups. EMS live in their “Bus” while on duty most days. Running from call to call going to the hospitals, re-stocking and cleaning the bus and doing it all again. I’m not against EMS Stopping to have a sit down meal in the bus in fact I wouldn’t care if they took the bus to a restaurant on the way back from taking a patient to the hospital or a simple non transport first aid type call. To me this is a no brain-er. They could do this 3 times in 24 hours if they liked it really wouldn’t bother me! I would prefer they didn’t do it between 7:30AM-9:00AM, and 4:30-6:00PM due to traffic congestion issues.
As for the fire fighters, I am unsure of all the equipment provided at each fire house, but if a fuel efficient vehicle (car/pick-up) is available I would have no issue with one fire fighter leaving to pick up food for the group and then return to the fire house. My other suggestion is to allow firefighters one at a time to use a POV (personal owned vehicle) to run errands no more than 1.5 hours a shift and no more than 3 trips in a shift. They would have to stay in the district, or the closest business district to the fire house. They can carry a radio and gear and if needed to respond to an incident they could do so in their POV like volunteer fire departments.
It is in my mind asinine to require a firefighter working a 24 hour shift to remain in the four walls of the firehouse when not on training or calls. I do however think that heavy fire equipment should not EVER be rolled out unless needed to save tax dollars. Joy riding in a fire truck is not a good thing and should be punished by supervisors. If a supervisor doesn’t know where a truck is it shouldn’t be there.
I also believe that ALL county vehicles should have mileage logs and they should be audited by supervisors on a regular basis. I am almost certain county road crews use vehicles for the same purpose as much or more than the fire department. If you are going to apply a rule to one set of county employees it should go for all.
