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Belgrade fire chief outlines accreditation process during public forum
Summary
Central Valley Fire District Chief Jay Whitwer told the Belgrade City Council the department is pursuing national accreditation and introduced a CPSC facilitator who described an 18-month process of strategic planning, community risk assessment and a 2026 performance evaluation.
Jay Whitwer, fire chief for Central Valley Fire District, told the Belgrade City Council during the meeting’s public forum that his department has begun a community-driven strategic planning process as part of a bid for national accreditation.
"Part of that strategic planning process is to go after what's called an accreditation," Whitwer said, asking the council to note the district’s effort and introducing the facilitator who would briefly explain the program.
Rich Merrill, a facilitator with the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSC), told the council that CPSC is the accrediting body for fire and emergency response and described the accreditation steps: a community-driven strategic plan, a Community Risk Assessment (to match deployment to risk), and later an evaluation against performance indicators. "It's really about quality improvement for the fire service," Merrill said, and he estimated the internal process to last roughly 18 months with a formal evaluation of performance indicators in 2026.
Merrill said accreditation is similar to processes used by schools, hospitals and police agencies: it sets benchmarks and measures an agency against industry best practices. He said the risk-assessment step will help the district "analytically and quantitatively" align staffing and response to identified community risks so resources are neither under- nor over-deployed.
Whitwer closed by noting the value of community participation in the strategic-plan step and said the facilitator’s work would help the district "take care of itself in the future." The council took no formal action during the forum; public comment concluded with no additional speakers.
The council then continued with its regular agenda.
