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Shake-up at Tool VFD
Fire chief asks officers to resign; new assistant
chief begins training, seeks experienced recruits
By Pearl Cantrell
Monitor Staff Writer
TOOL–Concern over the effectiveness of the Tool Volunteer
Fire Department has generated a great deal of discussion lately – and
some drastic action.
Tool Fire Chief Rodney McClain recently requested the resignation of the
department’s officers and has appointed a new assistant chief – Gary
Tyson.
Tyson lives in the Emergency Service District No. 4, the funding arm for
the department, and is also a paid firefighter in Kilgore.
His work shifts – 24 hours on and 48 hours off – allows him to tend to
the fire station in Tool three to four days a week.
“I’m here a lot,” he told The Monitor. He has six years of fire fighting
experience, three as a professional.
Tyson’s presence at the station and level of expertise is very important
because the fire chief, who works for East Cedar Creek Fresh Water
Supply District, is restricted from crossing to the west side of the
lake during working hours.
McClain was installed as chief last January, when the former chief
resigned.
Tyson’s appointment came immediately following the resignation of six
volunteer firefighters, most of the department’s officers.
McClain asked for their resignations two weeks ago, when he learned they
had held “illegal” meetings, in violation of the department’s bylaws,
with members of the city council.
The first one was Friday, Oct. 5, and McClain said he was not informed
about that meeting.
The next morning, he was called to attend an officers’ meeting to go
over concerns, but he had already assured his daughter of his presence
at her soccer game that day. McClain called an officers’ meeting for
Sunday, Oct. 7, at which time he read a brief statement and asked for
their resignations.
Since then, one person has circulated a letter to the newspapers and to
Precinct 1 Commissioner Joe Hall raising an alarm about the fire
department’s inability to respond to calls.
“There’s been numerous occasions in the last several months that no one
has showed up (from the fire department to answer a call),” Mayor Scott
Confer said Thursday. “I’ve been really concerned.”
Confer reviewed a list of needs that he said have not been met since the
ESD was established five years ago, including a lack of training, not
having enough people to respond, equipment stored in the open and no new
fire station erected.
People within the department also have concerns.
“There’s a lot of internal strife. We wanted to know what we might do to
help the situation,” Confer said. Dealing with volunteers is much
different from dealing with employees, he pointed out.
“I believe we’re finally on the right track,” Tyson responded Thursday.
“We’re responding to daytime calls,” McClain told The Monitor.
Having enough trained volunteer firefighters available to respond to
calls during working hours is a national problem, Tyson said, “no
different here than anywhere else.”
The Monitor confirmed the Tool VFD assisted the Seven Points VFD at a
house fire Wednesday.
Tyson said the former officers were not fulfilling their
responsibilities when it came to setting up a training program, becoming
NIMS (National Incident Management System) compliant, and equipping the
new fire truck.
Since his appointment, Tyson has ordered curriculum from the State
Firemen and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas.
The first training session from that curriculum is set for Monday night
(tomorrow), he said.
The SFFMA sets quality levels, Tyson added. He also reported the fire
truck is nearly ready to be put into service.
“They’ve (the former officers) been working for four years to get it,
and haven’t done it yet,” he said.
McClain told The Monitor he has about 10 trained firefighters to answer
calls and he’s looking for more. The marquee at Tool City Hall
advertises that fact.
Tyson reported receiving three more applications in the last week,
including two from experienced firefighters.
The fire department is launching a campaign to recruit other paid
firefighters who live in the area, he said.
Additionally, Tyson’s wife, an Athens High School health teacher, is
conducting CPR classes for Tool firefighters and police officers
Saturday, Nov. 3.
“We want to get everyone up-to-date on their certification,” Tyson said.
The class will be the first in a series of health-safety classes.
“Let me tell you about Tyson,” ESD No. 4 treasurer and co-founder of the
district Larry Moran told The Monitor.
“Not long ago, a man drove up to the station with a limp 5-month-old in
his arms. The baby’s heartrate had dropped to 30 and was not breathing.
Tyson called for an ambulance and cleared the baby’s airway, so she
could breathe,” Moran said. “She was taken to Children’s Hospital in
Dallas. I was glad he was there.”
Moran, who attends all the Monday meetings of the fire department,
confirmed no training has been taking place. He also confirmed that
there has never been better cooperation between the ESD board and the
fire department as there is now under McClain.
“I only see positive things for the future,” he said.
Though the city has offered a 99-year lease on the property adjacent to
city hall, the district is going forward with purchasing a larger piece
of property for $35,000 where a larger building can be constructed to
better meet current and future needs, he said.
“It will cost all of $35,000 to demolish what’s there before something
new can be built,” he said. The district is seeking a USDA low-interest
loan, he added.
“I hope he’s right,” Confer responded. “The (current) situation has been
leading to the city having no choice but to start the fire department
again. The last thing I want to do is dismantle the funding engine (ESD
No. 4). I don’t like being pushed into these corners.”
Gym plans approved
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
EUSTACE–Eustace School Board members gave the go-ahead to draw up
construction documents on the planned new high school competition gym
Tuesday.
Architect Malcom McKinley of Lufkin-based Goodwin-Lasiter Inc. reviewed
plans with the trustees, and showed them the colors of brick planned for
the new gym.
McKinley said the primary color would be a nearly white rough-faced
brick – similar to the Austin stone used for the administration
building, but far cheaper – with dark gray brick trim.
Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Architect Malcom McKinley shows Eustace School
Board members the color of bricks and metal trim planned for the new
high school competition gym. The light-faced brick at left will be the
dominate color, with the darker brick for trim and accents.
During a lengthy discussion, the trustees touched on
the floor surface in the lockerrooms and the type of seating to be used.
McKinley had a gold plastic theater-type seat on hand to show the
trustees, but a similar seat in Eustace purple would cost about $1 more
per seat, superintendent Dr. Coy Holcombe reported.
As planned, the gym would seat approximately 1,300 spectators, and will
cost between $4.6 million and $5.2 million, depending on the type of
seating chosen.
Trustees also could consider benches with backs, instead of individual
theater seats, McKinley said. Wooden painted benches would be far
cheaper than aluminum, and would probably wear just as well, he added.
“Those (plastic) seats are a little cheaper than aluminum (about $100
each), but only about a penny cheaper,” he told the trustees. “If you go
with aluminum, I think you will see the cost would be about the same as
going with those seats.”
Bench seats would probably allow a few more people to be seated, and
theater seats might prove confining for larger visitors, trustees noted
during the discussion.
“I think you should bid (both) as alternates, and see what the price
difference is,” McKinley said. “I think that’s what you should do, so we
can come up with a shopping list.”
Trustees agreed with that proposal, and authorized McKinley to have
flooring surfaces and gym seating options included in the official bid
documents.
If everything goes right, the bid documents may be ready for the board’s
next meeting, which was moved to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15.
In other business, the trustees:
• held a public hearing on the district’s FIRST (Financial Integrity
Rating System of Texas) rating.
• approved campus improvement plans as submitted.
• nominated Don McAfee for a place on the Henderson County Appraisal
District’s board of directors.
• agreed to cast the district’s five votes (compared to Canon ISD’s
1,000-plus) for each of the five members on the Van Zandt County
Appraisal District board.
• held a second reading on the Texas Association of School Boards’
Policy Update 81, which incorporates changes arising from the 80th
Regular Session in last spring.
• heard the district’s attendance rate was outstanding (96.2 percent).
MHS
students get first air ambulance demonstration
Monitor Staff Reports
MABANK–Mabank High School emergency medical technician (EMT) students
and student trainers got an up-close demonstration of a helicopter
ambulance Thursday.
 Monitor
Photo/Kerry Yancey
Flight paramedic Jeremy Hudson (center) shows Mabank High School
students the interior of a medical helicopter during a lecture to EMT
students and student trainers Thursday.
A yellow-and-black PHI helicopter, based in Corsicana,
landed outside the school Thursday morning. Flight paramedic Jeremy
Hudson led a classroom lecture and the following hands-on discussion
about air ambulance operations and safety.
PHI operates 12 bases in Texas and more than 70 bases around the
country, pilot Richard Studer said. He flies a Bell Helicopter 410
turbojet, which has a two-hour range, enough to fly from the Dallas-Fort
Worth area to Galveston.
Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
The yellow-and-black PHI medical
helicopter sets down on an access road at the MHS campus as Mabank
police and fire department personnel stand by.
Each air ambulance flies with a three-man crew – the
pilot (Studer), a flight nurse (RN Dewayne Martin) and a flight medic
(David Dotson), Hudson told the students.
Asked what speed the chopper flies, Hudson said the craft usually flies
at top speed – 155 mph – wherever it goes.
Some 14 EMT basic students and 13 student trainers took part in the
first-ever air evacuation and transportation demonstration.
Studer talked to some of the students about the control systems and
cockpit, while Hudson and Dotson demonstrated the high-tech medical
equipment packed into the narrow body of the aircraft.
Junior Mary Hartnett volunteered to be the “victim,” and squeaked (just
a little) when four burly classmates lifted her off a gurney onto the
patient platform, which swings out from the passenger compartment.
In addition to the three-man crew and patient, there is a fifth seat
available if necessary, Studer said.
Two years ago, when the helicopter was transporting hospital patients
out of the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina, one ambulatory
patient was transported in the fifth seat, he explained.
While gathered around the helicopter, Hudson continually questioned the
gathered students on the safety aspects of helicopter operations,
outlined earlier during the classroom lecture.
Mabank Volunteer Fire Department members also were on hand to set up the
landing zone.
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