By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Continued improvements to Ellis County fire service likely will save property and homeowners in Ellis County on their insurance this year.
After an evaluation in December, the Ellis County Fire Department’s Public Protection Classification (PPC) for Company 4 Victoria, Company 5 Hays and Company 6 Ellis all saw a rating increase.
According to information presented to the Ellis County Commission Monday by Director of Fire and Emergency Management Darin Myers, all three departments had their rating improve from five to four for within 1,000 feet of a fire hydrant.
The rating for Hays and Victoria increased from a six to a five for within 5 miles of the fire station. Ellis increased from a seven to a six rating.
The new ratings put the Ellis County Fire Department within the top 25 percent of all departments rated by the ISO.
“That is astounding,” Commissioner Barb Wasinger said. “You should be congratulated with the cooperation of all the different fire departments.
“We are so fortunate and so grateful for our volunteer firefighters and we’re grateful for the job you’re doing.”
Myers said there is a lot that goes into determining the ratings.
“They don’t look at how we respond, how fast we get there,” Myers said. “It’s a lot more the administrative details that go on with the fire department.
“It’s how it’s organized, how effectively and efficiently you’re using your resources and how well you’re working interdepartmentally.”
The rating for all three remained at 10 for over 5 miles from a fire station, but Myers said the only way to change that is to build more stations.
They are still waiting on the rating for Schoenchen.
Earlier this year, the city of Hays announced their fire rating fire rating also improved from a three to a two.
The new ratings will be effective June 1 for Victoria, and July 1st for Ellis and the areas outside of Hays, according to Myers.
“Each insurance company provides their premiums on different basis, not everybody goes off ISO records, not everybody goes off of the same date of when they calculate their insurance premiums,” Myers said.
“When I contacted my insurance agent, he said one of the biggest jumps that you’ll see within his company is going from a class six to a class five, which a lot of ours just went too,” he said.
Myers suggested residents reach out to their insurance company when the new ratings take effect.
“It could be a pretty big cost savings throughout the entire Ellis County,” Myers said. “We have over 9,900 residential structures and just about 1,800 commercial properties.”
Myers said the reason for the increase in rating is because of everything they have done to improve the department.
Among those improvements are recent upgrades to the Ellis County Dispatch Center.
The county has upgraded dispatch consoles, call-taking software for the consoles and call-logging equipment at the dispatch center. The county has also purchased new public safety radios in 2017.
“That project gave us enough points to be able to at least maintain the same score that we did in the past,” said Myers. “That’s actually how far outdated we were with the systems down there.”
Myers said those upgrades helped to keep the ratings where they are but the county will need to continue updates. He said the need for the new equipment and training and procedures and protocols are weighing on the dispatch rating.
A second part of the PPC evaluates the fire department. That includes the types of equipment, the number of fire fighters, the amount of training each fire fighter goes through and automatic aid.
Water supplies are also a part of the PPC rating. According to Myers, the closer property is to a water source the better the rating will be.
Myers said to maintain the score they need to, “continue with our replacement programs, continue with our support for our volunteer firefighters, give them what they need – as we can – and keep our volunteer forces up.”
“We can have the nicest equipment in the world, nicest fire stations in the world, nicest bunker gear, but if we have nobody to put in them it’s never going to work,” he said.
In other business, Treasurer Lisa Schlegel provided the commission with and interest income update, approved the purchase of cold mix asphalt from Hi-Plains Sand of Kanopolis and awarded a bid for cold in-place asphalt recycling from The Coughlin Co. of Salina.