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       #Post#: 221--------------------------------------------------
       RENO ISSUES
   DIR By: wolfie
       Date: April 4, 2011, 9:52 pm
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       Written by
       Susan Voyles
       svoyles@rgj.com
       FILED UNDER
       Local News
       Members of the Reno City Council recently raised a bevy of
       issues related to staffing and a series of procedures and also
       the cost of false dispatches and the speed of responses to 911
       calls.
       Reno Councilman Dwight Dortch is pushing for a two-man
       rescue/medical unit in the North Valleys, even though the
       diversion of firefighters could hamper the Reno Fire
       Department's ability to muster four fire companies to quickly
       get to a raging fire.
       Councilman Dave Aiazzi wants to zero in on the number of calls
       -- nearly 9,500 a year -- in which Reno fire companies are
       canceled en route. He figures the unnecessary wear-and-tear on
       fire engines could easily add up to $1 million a year.
       Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza wants more details on fire
       departments with paramedic/firefighters that charge ambulance
       companies for their work in prepping patients before they're
       transported.
       And council members also want staff to find ways to speed up the
       dispatching of 911 calls. Those calls take two minutes, twice as
       long as the national standard, looking at 85 percent of the best
       calls and throwing out the rest as anomalies.
       The issues were raised during last week's council briefing on a
       new in-depth study on the department's response times. It was
       prepared mostly as a step in a yearlong process to evaluate
       whether Reno, Washoe County and other entities should create a
       regional fire district. The $42,000 study was prepared by Joe
       Parrot, a 38-year fire services veteran, of Emergency Services
       Consulting International, Wilsonville, Ore.
       The report cites the need for two additional stations in the
       North Valleys and a new one in the southeast Truckee Meadows
       when justified by growth.
       With the city's dwindling revenues, firefighters currently are
       struggling to cover the city. Because of staff cutbacks, engine
       companies at up to five fire stations and staffing for two
       additional rigs can be idled each day before firefighters are
       called back to work overtime to staff the remaining eight
       stations.
       When city finances improve, the study recommends the North
       Virginia Street station be the first to open most of the day. In
       the year studied, Parrott said 750 incidents suffered from that
       longer response time.
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