A new business owner and a firefighter addressed the Oct. 7 meeting of the Eastern Plains Chamber of Commerce. About 20 members attended the meeting, held at Grace Community Church and chaired by Dave Ahrens, president of the chamber.Greg Plunkett, franchise operator of the new Christian Brothers Automotive at 7699 McLaughlin Road, said he is a transplant from Texas who has been in Falcon for a few months. He has been with Christian Brothers for six years and said he could not ask for a better community than Falcon. Christian Brothers, which does all types of automotive work, was started in 1985 by Mark Carr, who partnered with a fellow Sunday School member; hence, the name ìbrothers in Christ,î Plunkett said. Carr founded the business on four principles: integrity, neighborliness, trust and translucence, he said. The business began franchise operations in 1997 in the Houston area, and now has 227 franchise operators.Plunkett spoke of winter preparations for cars such as checking the antifreeze, tires and battery. He also advocated having a safety bag containing items like trail mix, water and blankets in case one is stranded in the winter. ìDon’t let your gas gauge get below one quarter,î he said, so that the heater could be used in the case of being stranded. He said Christian Brothers will conduct a fall-winter check at no charge.Jeff Petersma, a Falcon native and deputy chief of operations for Falcon Fire Protection District, followed Plunkett. Referring to the newly inaugurated ambulance service, he said, ìYou call, we haul.î Petersma added that the department has three ambulances on call and one reserve ambulance. Hopefully, he added, there will soon be a fourth ambulance. He said the ambulance service has received up to 106 transports in a month. According to a recent agreement with the Ellicott Fire Department, Falcon ambulances now answer calls in some Ellicott locations. He said since the ambulance service began, they only had to rely on American Medical Response twice to answer calls Falcon could not handle.Switching gears, Petersma spoke about the new administration building. He said the station 3 property, at the intersection of Old Meridian Road and Highway 24, had to be integrated with the new intersection. He said the fire department is now in the site development stage of the new fire station 3 that will be built on the current station 3 property. He said it would resemble station 4, which is on Capital Drive, north of Constitution Avenue. The new station will have bigger bays and additional sleeping arrangements.When the new station 3 is built, the current station 3 will be partially torn down and remodeled into an administration building. Petersma said in the past the emphasis has been on service. He said administration needs to catch up. When the new administration building is completed, Petersma said the fire department will hire a receptionist and a fire marshal for inspections. The new fire station and the new administration building will both have meeting spaces for nonprofit community groups.In response to a question, Petersma explained the difference between mutual aid and pre-established aid. With pre-established aid, there is a pre-determined plan for service ó the dispatcher assigns a call to the emergency service agency that can provide the best response time. In contrast, mutual aid is assistance requested by one emergency service agency from another emergency service agency.
