Unofficial Garland Fire Dept Homepage

Things written on this webpage are info I obtain from updates from the dept. I do add some of my own comments / remarks if I feel something needs to be said. REMEMBER, this is MY page. Any comments from myself are mine & the dept may not necessarily agree to everything I have to say. This is what makes us all special & individuals.
 

Here is the lastest news from the admin  (9-4-08):
(my added notes in red)

The 08/09 budget was approved Tuesday by the City Council.

Items of interest to the Firefighters are;
 

• The raises were approved of 3.4% - 5.0%
• Four firefighters positions were “banked”
• New leather fire boots were approved
• New Scott Air-Pak parts were approved
• Training Center funds were increased
• Bunker gear cleaning was increased
• BioTel funds were increased
• Worked Overtime was cut by $228,000
• FLSA overtime was cut.  Basically what happened was that the leave codes that determine “hours work” in a work cycle were changed.  The plan submitted to the Council by the City Manager, was going to change leave codes to mimic Dallas and Mesquite and some other cities.  That is if you are not at work for any reason… you lose your FLSA OT.  The Council changed this to say that “Holidays” would not count as bad time.  So next year the process for determining hours worked is worse than we had last year, but certainly is not as bad as it could have been.
• Three ambulances were put in service
• Two engines were taken out of service
• The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for retirees was cut, both present and future retirees.  The Council approved this cut but gave the City Manager specific instructions to find a way to put a program in place that would make up for the COLA being cut.  I have no idea how or what this will turn out to be.  This was the most expensive cut that was made.  We are told that the COLA will cost somewhere between 7 million and 11 million a year under the new plan TMRS put into place.

To help alleviate the effect of the reduction of the two engines, it is my intention to do the following;

·         Truck 1 and Truck 5 will run with a minimum of 4 personnel.  Truck 1 can run with 3 personnel if Engine 1 is put in service on a given day.  Engine 1 will be put in service with the first two extra personnel over minimum staffing.

·         Change our Mutual Aid Agreement with Dallas County to say that Truck 5 and Truck 4 will not leave our City.  They will not fill-in in other Cities.  This will be done by other engines in our City.

·         We are looking at the benefits of setting up an automatic assistance agreement with Rowlett to run into 5’s district.

·         Ambulance 10 will respond to all Structure fires in the City to add firefighter strength, RIC, or Rehab.

·         Change the way apparatus comes to Training.  We are looking at a plan (recommended by one of you) that engines will not leave district to come to training.  Ambulances will come to Training with two or three personnel and later that afternoon other personnel from that station will attend the training on the ambulance leaving the engine in district all the time.  Also we are looking at a plan (recommended by one of you) of how engine evolution training will take place.  This will be done in certain weeks of the year.  Vacation or holidays will not be allowed to be taken that week thereby maximizing the number of personnel on duty.  Extra engines will be put in service during that week which will act as fill-in engines so front line crews can attend engine evolution training.

·         We will also change dispatch procedures to lower response apparatus on some of the calls we respond to.  We will also reevaluate incident response dealing with when we send an engine with an ambulance.  The purpose it trying to give the engine more time to respond to fire calls.
 
 
 
 
 

Here is the lastest news from the admin  (10-2-07):
(my added notes in red)

Information to keep you in the loop:

1.  Budget approved.  Your raises and the increase to $30.00 per shift to ride the ambulance will begin in January. Increased from $20/shift

2.  Purchase of 31 new thermal imagers is in purchasing dept. soon to be bought

3.  New engine 2 and new truck 7 scheduled for deliver in January or February 2008

4.  6 new rescue chain saws in purchasing to be bought.  These were the ones recommended by the guys who went to McKinney and tested them in ventilation exercises

      Each truck will get one with one extra for spare.  This is coming from Grant money. This has been done & they are great.

5.  We will start moving some of the extra equipment (lumber trailer, portacool) being stored at station 11 to the new 8 bay storage building at our new facility.  Also the safe house from station 10 will be moved there also.  A little later, we will move the reserve engines here also.  The reserve ambulances will stay at the stations

6.  The weight equipment for the new center is on order and should be in by the end of October for those who want to come by and workout on their days off. Completed.

7.  Incident command training starts next week at our new facility Completed.

8.  RIC training starts November 5 at the new facility Completed. Now, all Truck companies are the RIC teams.

9.  We are working on CIP budget.  So far, city manager has approved for discussion a Grass Wagon and another engine A brush truck/grass wagon is much needed as is another engine.

10.  New MDC’s  on all equipment to start being installed this month Completed (or near completion).

11.  Hiring process continues.  Agility was done last Saturday.  Interviews and background starting soon.  Will hire either 10 or 11.  Our rookie school will start in January. Completed.

12.  Plans are still to give the promotional exams after the first of the year.

13.  If you haven’t been in the new facility, stop by anytime for a tour. Completed. This place is incredible. I was hired in 1985 & had our rookie class in a 1 room 18' x 30' cinder block building built by a former rookie class. We now have an awesome drill field / admin offices.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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