New President Signs In - Monte Wisbrock

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Two weeks ago, Rick Parrett took a look at last year as he turned the president’s gavel over to me. With one Company meeting under my belt, I’d like to share a few thoughts on the year ahead. As a member of the BBVFC for the past seven years, I’ve had the chance to develop a pretty good feel for the challenges a volunteer organization such as ours faces. Serving as assistant secretary for the past two years has given me a much better understanding of how the Company works and what it takes to meet those challenges. As Rick noted, a huge part of the answer is people, people, people, be they directors, officers, committee chairs, or the members who are the backbone of any successful entity. Among the BBVFC’s principal goals for the coming year is growing our membership and encouraging both current and new members to take a more active role in guiding the Company forward. Another huge resource in meeting our challenges is the community. Over the past few years, we have worked hard to communicate more effectively with you. We think that the success of our annual and major capital campaigns and the resolution of the ambulance issue are due, in no small part, to those communications initiatives. Recognizing that we need your continued support to succeed, we will continue and, hopefully, improve these efforts in 2009. As the media remind us every day, finances will remain our biggest struggle as county and the state funds do not cover the cost of day-to-day operations before consideration of capital needs. Despite the continued commitment of our elected officials to the state’s emergency services, we expect the lingering real estate malaise and overall local, regional and national economic conditions to test local and state government’s ability to fund everything that needs funding. We thank them in advance for their efforts. We will be doing our part by reducing costs and by redoubling our own fundraising initiatives. In that latter regard, we thank you in advance. Replacing apparatus in a timely manner is an enormous challenge. We are targeting at least 25 years of service from these vehicles through good maintenance and careful operation. As well as we do, however, increasing repair costs over time, changing standards and increasing equipment costs require us to save roughly $200,000 annually to fund replacements without borrowing. We are currently updating our long range plan, looking at ever factor in the equation, including fewer pieces, to manage this critical issue. Working with the Towns of Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island and South Bethany and the Sea Colony Recreational Association to address the ambulance challenge consumed enormous energy over the last 16 months. The next twelve months will see a similar commitment to successfully staffing, starting up and operating the service. We are off to a good start with the ambulances here, the EMS supervisor on board and the firefighter/EMT hiring process going well. Much more needs to be done in getting the ambulances outfitted, inspected and certified, setting up medical and other benefit plans, training the new team, establishing billing procedures and getting property owners not in the Big 4 to financially participate. There’s a lot to do, some of which we’re doing for the first time, but the entire Company is working hard to insure a successful outcome. If it wasn’t for dedicated volunteers committed to serving the community and for a community that supports them, there might be reason for pessimism. However, the BBVFC has both and both are working together for the good of all. How can we not succeed? Monte Wisbrock is a firefighter with and president of the BBVFC, which he joined in 2001. He is a retired U.S. Army sergeant major and past president of the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce and was the BBVFC’s Firefighter of the Year in 2005. Monte lives in Bethany Beach with his wife, Cheryl, and can be reached at [email protected].