The Lincoln County Fire Association discussed topics rangingfrom a ceremonial bugle to the newly repaired south repeater radiotower at firefighters’ annual meeting Thursday night.

Fire Association President Clifford Galey, Vice President KirkDouglas and Secretary Cindy Galey were re-elected to another termat their positions within the fire service.

Galey informed fire service members that the south repeater hadbeen repaired using 911 funds, and that it was back up to fullspeed.

“We worked it out with the county and so far it’s doing prettywell,” he said.

Ruth Fire Chief Teresa Lawrence said she was pleased with thesignal now that the repeater antenna has been moved to the top ofthe Topisaw Creek Water Association tower.

“It’s working really well so far,” she said.

Galey also informed the group of the 22 firefighters hadcompleted the volunteer certification course from August toOctober.

“Everyone who passed the test went to the academy and passed thephysical tests there,” he said. “We should be looking at between 50and 60 certified volunteer firefighters in Lincoln County now.”

Incident Command Systems classes are available online, Galeysaid, and all volunteers will be asked to complete the course. Hesaid if online completion wasn’t possible, scheduling an actualeight-hour class is also a possibility.

The course insures that all responders know what protocol tofollow and have common language in the case of amulti-jurisdictional emergency. Galey said county funds depend oneach department having a certain percent completion.

The ceremonial bugle the association has been looking topurchase will be taken out of association funds, Galey said, sincemoney they had thought would need to go to the south repeater isstill available. The bugle will be used in funerals for fallenfirefighters in conjunction with an honor guard the association isdiscussing forming in the near future.

Association members also discussed looking into pricing a radiosystem that will register user identification when the radio iskeyed up. That way, when a responder activates his radio to speak,dispatch can see which responder’s radio is active.

Such a system would insure not only accountability amongresponders, but safety in emergency situations as well.

Finally, there was a discussion among meeting attendees over theLincoln Rural Water Association’s requirement that each departmentlog how much water they use at each call. Galey said Lincoln RuralWater is concerned over excess water that is being lost each month,and the association wants to account for any unmetered water thatis being used.

“It is our job just to get them our numbers,” Galey said. “Ithink it will surprise them how little water we’re using. But I saywe need to be as thorough as we can, because if we do that, we’vedone our job.”

Meeting attendees questioned the use of hydrants by oilcompanies and other industries. However, Galey told them to focuson their own departments’ activities and to let other entities takecare of themselves.

“Just be aware of what you’re using and report it,” he said.