The Federal Emergency Management Agency has granted the Kern County Fire Department $397,000 for the purchase of new electrocardiogram monitors for firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders, turnto23.com reported.

Alongside the equipment that firefighters and EMTs carry, ECG monitors are one of the most essential tools needed when they are on the scene of a life-or-death situation, the report said.

KCFD originally applied for the grant one year ago, in January 2022. A fire official says he expects the department to have the 10 new monitors by next month.

Big changes that favor labor unions could be coming soon to large municipal construction projects built by the city of San Diego, such as fire stations, libraries, sewer pipelines and bridges.

San Diego officials say they plan to create a blanket project labor agreement with local unions that would apply to projects citywide.

A PLA sets the wages, safety protocols and regulations for contractors and all their subcontractors on projects. It also sets goals for hiring of local workers and the awarding of contracts to construction firms led by disadvantaged people like former foster children.

Some cities work out PLAs on a project-by-project basis, but Mayor Todd Gloria wants the city and local construction unions to create one consistent set of rules.

City officials have held preliminary talks with union leaders and are exploring how other government agencies, such as the San Diego Unified School District and the Metropolitan Transit System, have handled their blanket PLAs.

This month or next, officials plan to present the City Council with a potential framework that could include proposed hiring rules and how small a project would need to be for an exemption from the PLA — probably less than $1 million.

“We are starting the process of putting a framework together,” said Jessica Lawrence, Gloria’s director of policy. “We’re looking at what other cities and agencies are doing.”

City voters made it possible for San Diego to consider a citywide PLA in November when they easily approved Measure D, lifting a ban on PLAs they had approved a decade earlier.

Supporters say PLAs help projects get built on time and under budget, because they require contractors to use mostly trained union workers who are more efficient and less likely to make mistakes or perform tasks out of order.

“Our members are well-trained and very good at what they do,” said Carol Kim, who will help negotiate San Diego’s citywide PLA as leader of the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council.

Supporters also tout that PLAs include policies encouraging contractors to hire local workers and favoring contractors owned by people deemed disadvantaged, such as formerly incarcerated people.

By laying out a comprehensive set of rules and guidelines, PLAs also protect workers by making it much harder for contractors to withhold wages, pay workers “under the table,” intentionally misclassify workers or flout prevailing wage mandates.

Labor unions say PLAs also boost the middle class by requiring at least 20 percent of work be performed by apprentices, creating a pathway to middle-class jobs for young people willing to get the proper training.

Critics say PLAs make projects more expensive by shrinking the number of contractors willing to submit bids, reducing flexibility for contractors and creating confusion between them and workers that slows projects down.

The Associated General Contractors of San Diego, which represents mostly non-union contractors, estimates costs for city projects will rise 30 percent under a blanket PLA and suggests more projects will be handled by contractors and workers from outside the region.

“A blanket PLA will have major impacts to the city,” said AGC chief executive Eddie Sprecco. “The city should do a project-by-project justification and analysis for a PLA. If done honestly, the city wouldn’t need a threshold, but likely it would only apply to projects above $40 to $50 million.”

Other critics say PLAs have typically not done enough to help workers of color.

Supporters and opponents of PLAs poured millions into the campaigns for and against Measure D, which voters

In Fort Worth Friday morning, a vehicle slammed into the back of a reserve fire truck as firefighters responded to a crash, cbsnews.com reported.

While firefighters weren’t hurt, the truck sustained significant damage, the report said.

In Dallas this week, a similar story.

Dallas Fire-Resuce spokesman Jason Evans said three trucks, including Truck 39, which is just six months old, had to be pulled from service after being damaged as firefighters were responding to accidents on icy roads, the report said.

A firefighter on Truck 39 was hurt overnight and had to be taken to an area hospital, but has since gone home, according to the report.

City records show between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, firefighters responded to more than 800 incidents. 

The average call volume is just over 100. 

Both cities are still assessing the damages to their fire trucks, the report said.

U.S. Forest Service-Stanislaus National Forest made this Facebook post Thursday:

Bald Mountain Helitak Base Break-In Most Recent in Series of Thefts

SONORA, California, February 2, 2023 – Law Enforcement with the Stanislaus National Forest is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying and apprehending those responsible for an unlawful entry and theft between noon, Saturday, January 28 and 7:30 a.m., Sunday, January 29, 2023 at the Stanislaus National Forest’s Bald Mountain Helitak base off of Highway 108.

The theft at the helitak base resulted in the loss of various firefighting, aviation, and forestry equipment. Initial estimates place the value of the stolen property between $40,000 and $50,000. This latest theft is in addition to break-ins at the Forest Supervisor’s Office in Sonora (catalytic convertors were removed from vehicles), the Mi-Wok District Office, and the Summit District Office over the last six months.

“Fighting fire is a difficult enough challenge without the loss of our equipment,” said Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor, Jason Kuiken. “Obviously we will replace the equipment, but this is not something we have a budget for, thus funds will have to come from different program areas meaning the degrading of other services provided by forest staff. The forest will also need to repair the vandalism to these federal facilities (broken windows, damaged fencing, general clean-up of ransacked buildings). This too will have an impact to other program areas and the services we offer.”

Anyone with information relating to the theft at Bald Mountain Helitak Base or any of the recent break-ins is encouraged to contact Stanislaus National Forest Law Enforcement at 530-906-2087.

Benjamin Cossel, Public Affairs Officer,
Stanislaus National Forest
209.288.6261
Benjamin.cossel@usda.gov

Hunter Oberst
The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
(TNS)

Feb. 1—SWANZEY — Voters will head to the town’s annual deliberative session Tuesday to weigh in on a host of matters that will be on the ballot in March. But this time, funding a new fire station won’t be one of them.

Attendees of Tuesday’s meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Whitcomb Hall, can discuss and amend warrant articles before voting them up or down next month.

Here’s a look at what’s on the warrant:

Budget proposal: $7,425,000. That’s up $508,685, or about 7 percent, from the $6,916,315 budget voters approved last year. The default budget, which goes into effect if voters reject the operating budget proposal in March, is $6,864,706.

Michael Branley, town administrator, said factors driving the budget increase include higher electricity and heating costs and the addition of a land use and zoning coordinator position. Branley mentioned via email that the recreation director position will also now be full-time, and the town is proposing increasing funds for road repaving to account for higher asphalt costs.

Fire-station funding: In 2022, the town asked voters to consider raising funds for a new fire station to be built at 321 Old Homestead Highway. That marked the fifth time since 2015 that such an article had been on the warrant. In each of the past three years, the fire-station proposal received a simple majority but failed to meet the three-fifths supermajority required for approval.

One article that is on this year’s warrant calls for $300,000 to be raised for the Fire Stations Capital Reserve Fund, with half coming from taxes and the remaining $150,000 from undesignated fund balance. Branley explained that these dollars could be used to improve Swanzey’s existing fire stations or save toward a new one.

“With increasing borrowing and building costs and the Monadnock Regional School District proposing a major facility bond this year we did not feel it was a good year to propose a major fire station bond,” Branley wrote, referencing the school district’s proposed elementary-school renovation and consolidation project. “With that said, the need for a new fire station to get Station #2 out of the basement has not changed.”

Swanzey has three fire stations, and the new facility would replace the station that is currently under town hall and dates to the 1960s, town officials have said.

Other warrant articles: Residents will also weigh in on an article that would amend the town’s solar tax exemption, a policy that can benefit property owners who own land equipped with solar energy systems. This would be equal in amount to 100 percent of the assessed value of qualifying solar equipment with no dollar cap on the exemption. Swanzey’s existing policy, which voters adopted in 2019, has a maximum dollar amount of $35,000.

Town officials have also put forth a few articles that propose allocating money to capital reserve accounts and expendable trust funds, including one that calls for $590,000 to be raised through taxes for funds dedicated to road reconstruction and cemetery/highway improvements.

Hunter Oberst can be reached at 355-8546, or hoberst@keenesentinel.com.

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