Lancaster County Fire Commission flags FirstView rollout, NERIS reporting changes and recommended budget gaps

At a Lancaster County Fire Commission meeting, commissioners and staff reviewed ongoing problems integrating fire data into the county’s incident-reporting systems, discussed the upcoming migration from NIFRS to NERIS, and examined a county administrator’s recommended budget that raises many line items but does not fully fund all requests from the commission.

The commission said the issues matter because the county’s reporting platform and its connections to GIS and CAD systems affect data quality, accreditation work and how field crews document responses. Commissioners and chiefs warned that incomplete imports, corrupted hydrant data and weak CAD feeds are limiting the county’s ability to run accurate queries, produce historical reports and meet future reporting requirements when NERIS goes live.

Staff and commissioners outlined the technical problems and near-term fixes. Marcus Curatin, identified in the meeting as the county’s new GIS point of contact from the city IT group, was named as the staff contact to restore GIS layers and hydrant data that were corrupted during a merge by the former GIS manager, Jim Kylie. Commission members said FirstView had imported some historical calls but that fire-zone and district layers have not been imported because the GIS layers remain unresolved. The commission also reported intermittent failures in the CAD connection with the vendor named in the meeting as “Tower New World,” saying alerts sometimes arrive to FirstView either before or after Active 9-1-1 and that staff and the vendor are continuing to investigate the feed and expected update work.

Commission staff briefed members on the switch from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NIFRS/NFIRS) codes to the newer plain-language NERIS reporting format. Staff said NERIS will require more detailed on-scene data entry — for example, time stamps for primary and secondary searches and additional follow-up fields — and that dispatch time stamps will be critical to populate certain fields. The commission plans classroom and hands-on training for departments to prepare volunteers and career staff; the rollout for the Midlands region was described as planned for August in the meeting materials.

The meeting covered device deployment, record-authentication and workflow questions for on-scene reporting. Staff described an iPad-based workflow where crews can start a report on the truck, continue at the station and then lock the report with a digital signature; modifications and edits would remain time stamped and require administrative rights to unlock. Commission members raised implementation concerns: who signs a partially completed report, how the system records who worked on a report, and whether enough volunteers are computer-literate to complete the more detailed NERIS narratives. Staff said they will set up key station users to enter reports and plan training targeted at career staff first, then volunteers.

The commission also discussed a recent FirstView invoice increase. One member questioned paying the larger fee before the product is fully operational; staff said some integration problems stem from mixups during GIS data merging and from the vendor trying to serve city and county needs on one development track. Marcus Curatin and county IT were described as the next points of contact to resolve remaining layer and feed problems.

On the budget, commission members reviewed the county administrator’s recommended budget for the fire service. Staff said the administrator recommended increases in many existing line items but did not fully fund the amounts the commission requested. For example, the commission had requested roughly $70,000 for training; the county administrator’s recommendation reported at the meeting was $56,000, with other recommended adjustments that commission staff described as effectively raising the usable training budget to about $66,000. The meeting packet showed the school program line remaining at $55,000. A long-troubled capital equipment line was restored to the long-intended $40,000 after having carried a much smaller balance the prior year. Staff characterized the overall recommended total for the department as higher than the current year but lower than the commission’s full request in several categories.

Commissioners pressed the administrator’s choices, particularly that hose testing and certain testing/service costs for safety equipment had not been moved into a funded line item. Officials said hose testing was taken out of special projects earlier in the year; during the discussion a staff member stated they would add hose testing to the budget lines under the upcoming reading. Commissioners were advised that changes can still occur in the formal reading process and that the most direct route for a funding change would be to contact individual county council members before the reading, scheduled in the packet as the public reading on Monday night.

The meeting also included operational updates: the commission reported distribution plans for rescue jacks and airbags once missing hoses and protection pads arrive; ongoing parts shortages for several apparatus (including ECM units and turbo actuators) that had taken trucks temporarily out of service; and standard reimbursements delivered to stations for telephone and internet costs. A training report noted that nine seniors completed the high-school fire program this cycle, and that the program will move to a one-year format to allow more in-class time.

No formal ordinance or spending vote was recorded in the meeting transcript provided. The commission discussed sending a letter to the county administrator and encouraging chiefs and commissioners to contact council members directly if they want changes before the reading. Staff committed to continue coordinating with the new GIS contact, county IT and the FirstView vendor, and to prioritize training and local demonstrations before expanded rollouts to volunteer stations.

Looking ahead, staff said the Midlands region’s transition to NERIS is scheduled for August, apparatus-part and maintenance work continues to affect readiness on some units, and county council’s reading on the recommended budget could adjust funding levels before adoption.