HomeMy WebLinkAboutrepmar15.pdfVillage of Cayuga Heights
Honorable Kate Supron, Board of Trustees
Monthly Report March 2015
March was a fairly steady month with 43 runs. There were 16 calls in the Village of Cayuga Heights, 21 calls in
the Town of Ithaca and 6 mutual aid requests. We had 22 EMS runs and 21 fire calls. We feel that we got very
lucky with the spring thaw in March. It seemed to be gradual enough that we did not end up with many flooding
situations in homes. We did have a couple of calls for flooding when pipes thawed in empty homes and the water
flow was detected late. In these situations we shut off the water and secure the utilities until the home owners are
able to get the pipes fixed and then NYSEG will come turn the gas and electric back on.
Training through the month of March was good. With the cold we tried to do as much inside training as we
could. We used the truck bays for search evolutions, pulled out our portable pumps to refresh on how they work
and to service them and then we did an EMS training on ALS assists. When we have a call that requires
Advanced Life Support the paramedics are usually extremely busy managing immediate life threats and we rely
on the BLS providers to know where the ALS equipment is and how to set things up for us. These skills are
covered on the Rescue Checklist that has to be completed before members can run on rescue calls but annual
refreshers are done to keep the skills fresh. We have scheduled several “Weekend Warrior” training days for the
spring. All members are looking forward to live fire training, ropes refresher and interior checklist skills work.
The memorial service for Fleet Morse was March 28th. It was an amazing event. We worked closely with Fleet’s
family to set up a celebration of his life and servic e to the community but we were unsure how many people we
would have in attendance. We cleaned up the station, ordered food and got our Class A uniforms all set. We set
up chairs in the truck bay for 30 people and got the training room all set for the reception after. We had to quickly
add more chairs twice, we had around 80 people in attendance. We were very pleased. It was a wonderful group
representing many aspects of Fleet’s life. It was a beautiful service and Fleet’s family was happy and emotional.
We will gather again in late spring for the interment.
We advertised the bid for the new truck and have sent out several specs to vendors. We will wait to hear back
June 4th on bid opening day. Several of the companies have called for clarifications and we will be setting up
meetings to discuss the bids with them through April and May.
Assistant Chief Matt Abbinanti left the department in March to take a job in the Boston area. Matt came to Ithaca
10 years ago to get a PHD in neurobiology. He had run with a department in Meadville PA while getting his
undergraduate degree and decided to join our department when he got to Ithaca. His intention was to get his
degree and leave Ithaca and work in industry. He did get his PHD, it took a little long er than originally
anticipated, and ended up staying in Ithaca for some post -doctoral work. His wife Emily was convinced that the
reason they stayed so long was because of the fire department. Matt started as a probationary firefighter and
ended his time with us a First Assistant Chief. He served most of his time here as the training officer. While in
Ithaca Matt and Emily got married and had two children. He was my sounding board and we had many
discussions on the course the department should take. He was an invaluable asset to this organization and will be
sorely missed.
Fire Department elections are April 5th and I will present the slate of officers elected by the fire company for
approval by the Board at the Organizational Meeting on April 6th.
Sincerely,
George Tamborelle
Fire Chief/Fire Superintendent