With Shirley Fetrow, left, retiring from the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory at the end of the month after 22 years as the chief’s assistant and the recording secretary for the territory board, Heather Vogts, right, was named as her replacement. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Waiting for a fire truck that’s already been ordered will require the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory to continue to be patient.

At the territory board’s meeting Tuesday, March 5, while reviewing the equipment replacement fund expenditure report, Chief Brian Mayo reported, “The engine from last year — the new one that’s supposed to be coming in — that’s still in here. So if everybody’s looking there, going, ‘Man, that looks really robust, we’ve got a good balance in there,’ the engine has not been paid for yet. I actually just got some news that it could be delayed even longer for delivery. They’re speculating January 2025 now.”

Councilman Mike Klondaris asked if the truck is delayed and the fire territory is still sitting on the money, if any interest is being made on those funds.

“Yes,” Mayo said, “and the bad thing is, I think we’ll have to push that — it’s roughly $860,000 — probably into 2025 again. So we’ll have to roll it into another fiscal year’s budget cycle. So, that was just the latest news that I heard, which I totally believe.”
The equipment replacement fund report was approved by the fire territory board.

Moving on to the levy appeal that the Warsaw Common Council approved at its meeting Monday night, Mayo stated, “I think that was a success for the territory and I appreciate everybody’s support and questions and everything.”

He pointed out that, “the levy amount that it was taken up to … we won’t budget up to that amount for ’25’s fiscal budget. I think it’s $600,000 and under is where we’re shooting (for), which means it’ll cut that rate to considerably less. I’m very excited about that, what that does for the territory, some opportunities that gives us.”

With a 35% overlap in calls, he said the levy increase is warranted.

Mayo earlier in the meeting provided the monthly fire activity report for January, noting they had 335 responses in the month – up from the yearly average — with 117 (34.92%) of those overlapping. Overlapping means that there were two or more calls at one time.

“That’s up above average for us. Usually we have around 30%, so that’s 35% in January. Who knows, with the warmer weather in these months, if that trend will continue,” he said.

Klondaris said there were 117 overlapping incidents that happened and he asked if that was normal.

“That’s slightly above where we normally are. We’re usually about 30%, so out of 335 calls we’re usually around the 100 number, so January was a busy month,” Mayo responded.

He said when the weather is warmer like it has been, the fire department gets busier.

Mayo also pointed out two assists to other agencies in his report.

“We assist out in the county for a lot of various reasons,” he said.

One of those assists was an Auto-Pulse assist to the Leesburg Fire Department on Chapman Lake Drive. “We do that from time to time with neighboring departments that need our Auto-Pulse for CPR that either has to go local here or it’s going to Fort Wayne,” he said.

The other assist was for Pierceton Fire Department at 1 Arnolt Drive. Mayo said that was “actually a collapsed confined space, kind of jack-of-all-trades tactical rescue call that came in at — actually, it was the middle of the night, like 1 in the morning or something — for their overnight crews that had a bit of a collapsed-type of event, and they went out there.” He said it was brutally cold that night. “So a lot of times that we’ll go out, these don’t make a lot of press, you don’t hear a lot about these, but it’s reflected in our report here.”

Toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved Heather Vogts as the new recording secretary for the board, replacing Shirley Fetrow. Fetrow, the fire chief’s assistant, is retiring at the end of the month. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety at its meeting March 1 approved Vogts to move from the Parks and Recreation Department to the fire department to replace Fetrow. Vogts began working at the fire department on Monday to learn Fetrow’s job.

Fetrow told the board she had a wonderful 22 years at the fire department and she has a lot of mixed emotions about retiring.
“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” she said, adding that the fire department is a great group of guys and she loves her job, but it’s time to retire. “Bring in some younger people. Heather is going to do a wonderful job. We’ve spent two days together (so far), but she’s a perfect fit for the department so I’m real excited about that.”

Mayor Jeff Grose thanked her for her service and wished her the best. Everyone gave her a big round of applause.
After the board approved a motion to appoint Vogts as the new recording secretary, Vogts said, “I’m very excited. I think Shirley and I work good together, even though it’s been two days. We’ve dived right in and I’m excited about my future with the department.”

In her report earlier in the meeting, Alicia Mediano, Lutheran EMS director of operations, said the numbers for EMS calls were running pretty consistent. She said she just finished up the February report and the board will see that January and February 2024 call volumes are statistically higher than in 2023 and 2022.

Total encounters in January 2024 were 456, with 42 of the calls cancelled, one CPR with no transport, 51 patients evaluated or refused transport and 362 transported and treated.

“You’ll see the call volume, again, trends to show that the peak of the call time is from that 10 o’clock to 8 o’clock, maybe even peaks about 6 o’clock,” she said.

Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services Director and EMS Chief Chris Fancil gave his report to the board, saying February was a slower month for actual visits but the reason for that was because the CARES staff have been doing a lot of education. Community Health Coordinator Mikaela Bixler and C.A.R.E.S. Navigator Tanya Jackson spent the month doing some mental health awareness and education for the fire department. All three shifts got mental health training.

“They also got recertified in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer). It’s dealing with somebody who might be suicidal, so they did some recertification on that,” Fancil said.

Bixler also was sent to training about two years ago to become a QPR instructor and she teaches other entities as well.

Jackson was also sent to Fort Wayne for a class in peer recovery coaching, learning how to help people who are dealing with recovery from substance abuse. Fancil said Jackson took it upon herself to learn the basics of American Sign Language as well “so she can help some other folks we’re not touching yet.”

In other business, the fire territory board approved:

• The fee agreement for 2024 legal services provided by Beers Mallers LLP. The rate of $150 per hour and retainer fee of $500 has remained the same. Attorney Andrew Grossnickle said the terms have remained the same for a number of years.

• The acceptance of an EMS Training Equipment grant through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security EMS division for $9,118. The grant will be used to purchase a Simulaids STAT Manikin. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety accepted the grant at their Feb. 16 meeting.

• A plethora of travel requests for WWFT firefighters. Some have already taken place and were approved by the Board of Works.