At the recent meeting of the Oakdale Fire Protection District Board, there were a lot of pressing items on the agenda including the ‘changing of the guard’ in terms of the current board members.
Board President Paul Rivera and Director Eric Feichter both said their goodbyes as their terms came to an end and thanked the crowd for their participation throughout their terms on the board. Gary Cortes, retired Fire Captain from the City of Oakdale, who joined the board a few months ago, was reappointed to the board. In addition to Cortes, Rod Gambini, former Board President and retired firefighter that served in Valley Home for a number of years along with Matthew Cox, longtime resident and volunteer firefighter, will take over the seats vacated by Rivera and Feichter.
Erick Vandeveer and Mike Van Dyke will continue to serve as Directors.
In other business, while no final decision to terminate the current Fire Service Agreement with the City of Modesto was made, the Board did vote to draft a letter to terminate services and send it to LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) for further consideration.
Offering some remarks at the meeting was longtime Valley Home resident Winnie Mullins, who shared how much she, along with many of her fellow residents, have appreciated the excellent service and attention that the City of Modesto Fire Department has provided. While President Rivera agreed that the City of Modesto Fire Department has been a source of great help and assistance to the community, he also reiterated that going forward, the OFPD “could not afford them.”
Rivera also discussed the possibility of having a Single Resource Vehicle from Oak Valley Hospital District stationed at the Valley Home Fire Station which could rotate to the Knights Ferry Fire Station, with the annual cost being around $250,000 for a 12-hour shift to cover the hours when most folks are traveling to and from work and school. Concerns regarding the effectiveness of having just one paramedic with an SRV stationed out there as opposed to having a full team of firefighters respond to emergencies were raised as some of the firefighters noted that with one paramedic and an SRV that paramedic would not have a Lucas Device on that SRV as firefighters do on their fire trucks. A Lucas Device (Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System) provides mechanical chest compressions to people in cardiac arrest and can help ensure that the compressions are done correctly with proper depth and frequency while also allowing the emergency response providers to focus on additional life saving measures. Rivera noted that if the community wanted to move forward with having an SRV, they would have to factor in the additional cost of a Lucas Device for that SRV.
In addition to these items on the agenda, the Board also moved forward with a resolution to approve the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 along with a resolution to request Dry Period Funding for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026.
The next meeting of the Oakdale Fire Protection Board will be on Thursday, July 10 at 10 a.m. at the Knights Ferry Community Club, 17601 Main, Knights Ferry.
