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Evansville Board of Public Safety denies home-based food-trailer permit, approves $30,000 EMS study and adds incident safety officer posts
Summary
On Nov. 6, the Evansville City Board of Public Safety denied a resident’s request to park a food trailer at 911 East Mulberry, approved a $30,000 addendum for an EMS feasibility study and authorized organizational changes that create three incident safety officer positions intended to reduce firefighter injuries.
The Evansville City Board of Public Safety on Nov. 6 denied a resident’s request to park a food trailer at 911 East Mulberry and approved a slate of personnel and contract changes intended to bolster emergency services.
At the start of the meeting the board took a previously tabled request from Rafael Miles off the Oct. 25 agenda and voted to deny the indefinite parking permit for his food trailer at 911 East Mulberry. The motion to deny was seconded and approved by voice vote; no representative for the applicant was present when the board voted.
The board also approved an addendum to the Reedy Financial contract to provide $30,000 for an emergency medical services feasibility analysis. “We are requesting an addendum to the Reedy Financial contract in the amount of $30,000 and that will be utilized to conduct an emergency medical service feasibility analysis,” Chief Garrett said when presenting the request; Chief Knight spoke to the scope and explained that the work falls outside the original contract terms. The board voted to approve the addendum.
Board members approved an updated table of organization for the Fire Department that removes an executive assistant position (retired), confirms an assistant bookkeeper position previously approved through committees and adds three incident safety officer positions, one per shift. According to the Fire Department presentation, the new incident safety officers will “oversee the general safe practices on fire and emergency scenes” when more than one apparatus responds, conduct on-shift training and serve as fitness trainers. The department cited average annual line-of-duty injuries of 40–50 firefighters, with 70% occurring on the fire ground and an estimated 60% of those being preventable, as the rationale for adding the positions.
The board also approved a request to surplus three listed items from the Fire Department and moved forward other routine departmental items.
Why it matters: The contract addendum funds a study that could inform how emergency medical services are organized or funded in Evansville. The personnel changes and incident safety officer positions are intended to reduce preventable firefighter injuries and increase on-shift training capacity.
What’s next: The EMS feasibility study will proceed under the Reedy Financial addendum; the table-of-organization changes were approved at the meeting and implementation will follow standard personnel procedures.
