Minutoli Recieves Valor Award - Bear Trap Dunes

Friday, February 8, 2008

It is my honor as Chief of the Bethany Beach Volunteer Fire Company to nominate Robert Minutoli for this prestige’s valor award. Robert, known to the members as Bob, has only been in the company for the past three years. As a retired business man from the Baltimore area, he now operates several businesses in our area and abroad. Bob and his family now make there home in the beach community of Fenwick Island. Even though Bob always considers himself the “new guy,” his short time here has been plenty of time for Bob to make a forever lasting mark in history for the BBVFC. Bobs dedication to the fire company started the day he walked through our doors. He has completed over 100 hours of fire and EMS training within his first 18 months and continues to advance his knowledge in fire training. Living in Fenwick Island he saw a need to implement a total renovation project of our station 2. He managed all aspects of the project himself including financing, fundraising, and getting local contractors to donate materials and construction. We are now able to accommodate 6 volunteer firefighters living there full time so we can better serve the lower portion of our fire district. His next project he decided to undertake was to devise a replacement schedule for all of the apparatus in the BBVFC fleet. He generated a schedule for replacement of every truck over the next 75 years. He has figured how much the company will have to save each year in order to pay for those trucks when they come due for replacement. This project will help eliminate the debt of the BBVFC in the future. After that analysis was completed Bob realized the hardest part will be funding that project every year. Realizing the challenge of funding the truck replacement schedule, Bob approached me and asked “ Would it be ok if I put together a program to pay off our new building and tower truck.” Understanding what that would mean to the financial situation of the fire company in the future I asked “ you can do that?” Without hesitation Bob accepted this monumental challenge and said “ I will do my best.” Bob started what we call the capital campaign program. He built a program like we have never seen before. Bob designed a brochure explaining how the program would work and mailed it out to all the property owners in our district. In a nut shell the program asks for a percentage of your property value net worth over a five year pledge. The donations could be anywhere from $1,000 to $2,400 per year per property. Bob has handled every aspect of the program from design to depositing donation checks. At this point Bob has raised over 500,000 dollars in pledges for this campaign and the numbers are still rising. Bobs latest success is the sale of a Knox box program. The Knox box program has always been a part of the BBVFC but Bob has pushed it to a whole new level. The Knox Box system is an entry system into your home that allows us to enter without damaging your home during a fire emergency. Due to the rise of false alarms and nuisance calls Bob saw this program as an important customer service program. Again Bob designed a mailer and sent it to our entire fire district. Bob has over 400 Knox Box sales in the last 6 months which the fire company uses that income towards the fundraising burden. Each Knox Box takes about 1 and half hours to complete the installation and preplanning for each homeowner. This just shows the time dedication that Bob is willing to invest into the BBVFC. These 3 programs that Bob has developed are only a portion of what Bob contributes to the BBVFC. Aside from always striving to find ways to better the fire company he is an active and essential part of our daily firefighting and EMS efforts. Bob has devoted countless hours away from his family for the sole purpose of protecting the future of the BBVFC and the community it serves. I am amazed by the true love and dedication for the company that this “retired new guy” possesses and I am honored to be his chief nominating him for this valor award.