The Fire Commission met on March 28 and approved the successful completion of probation for Firefighter/Paramedics Eoghan Farber, Frank Lowry and Randall McMahon. Farber, Lowry and McMahon also participated in final probationary practical testing this week at the Joint Fire Training Academy. Congratulations to all three and we look forward to their long and successful careers with the Department.
Members of the Department participated in a car seat installation event at the JCC's Family Service Day at the Pantry on March 24.
Chief Whitaker attended a North Shore IT Steering Committee Meeting on Thursday. This group consists of the municipalities and departments that are served by the Joint North Shore IT Consortium including the Village of Bayside/Bayside Communications Center, Village of Shorewood, City of Glendale, North Shore Library and North Shore Fire/Rescue. IT Director Rich Foscato presented information on current projects, recently completed projects and upcoming goals/initiatives. A major upcoming IT project for Fire/Rescue will be replacement of the phone system hardware. The current vendor, Mitel, was purchased by Ring Central and will be replacing all phone system hardware in the coming months.
Soil boring testing will begin April 1 at Fire Station 82 as part of the exploration process for the station construction project.
Chief Whitaker and members of the command staff have been evaluating whether to maintain the current organizational structure with two lieutenant ranks (Fire Lieutenant and EMS Lieutenant) in the last three months. Chief Whitaker, Assistant Chiefs Carlson and Maydak and Finance Director Harrigan will meet with representatives of the firefighter's association next week to review various options that have been identified as part of the evaluation process and discuss how they may impact the collective bargaining agreement.
Chief Whitaker presented information about the Department at the North Shore Rotary Meeting this week. Thank you to the North Shore Rotary for the invitation.
The Department held a post incident review of fire/EMS operations at a recent major incident in Brown Deer with other area fire departments on Tuesday. As part of the Department's continuous improvement process, the Department regularly holds similar reviews after major incidents. Areas identified for improvement are then included in future trainings and used to improve operational policies.
The county-wide Tellus CAD2CAD software went live this week. This provides for a more effective method of requesting and receiving fire and EMS mutual aid requests.
Assistant Chief Maydak and Captain Bonnell have begun field testing of the First Due Pre-Incident Planning Software that the Department acquired this year. Department wide training will occur followed by full implementation in the coming weeks.
