At the Peyton Fire Protection District board meeting June 9, Jack Rauer, who became the district’s first paid fire chief in March, said he’s planning to conduct an Insurance Services Office (ISO) test this September.Currently, most of the district has an ISO rating of nine, with portions of the district more than five road mile from the station rated 10 – the worst possible rating.”Our goal is to obtain an ISO rating of six, but if we get an eight or even a seven, it’s a better rating than our current nine,” Rauer said.Peyton fire district’s ISO nine rating is not that unusual. According to ISO’s Web site, www.iso.com, at the beginning of 2001, 34 percent of the 45,504 fire districts in the United States had a rating of nine.Improving the district’s ISO rating should result in lower insurance premiums for homeowners in the district. An ISO study of rural fire departments in Arkansas projected an annual savings of $235 per household when the rating improved to seven.To prepare for the test, Rauer is upgrading an agreement with the Peyton school district that allows the fire district to use the school district’s water for training purposes. The current agreement only allows emergency use.Rauer said similar agreements with developments that have 30,000-gallon cisterns, such as Craig McConnell’s Apex Ranch and Prairie Vista developments, need to be made or upgraded.Private ponds are another potential source of water.Currently, the district cannot use water from a private pond, “even if it’s a structure fire and we’re out of water,” he said.Board secretary Jody Heffner said George Squier offered the district access to the naturally occurring pond on his property in the Blue Springs development. Rauer said he would pursue an agreement with Squier.In addition to getting access to water, Rauer said the department has scheduled a meeting with an ISO tester, completed an inventory of the equipment on the fire truck, ordered a hydrant tester, completed a ladder test, started a hose test and is trying to schedule a pump test.”The Air Force Academy will test our pump on the engine for free, and we’re waiting for available dates,” he said.The board approved Rauer’s request that all fire district volunteers and paid staff are required to pass a bi-annual physical agility test.”The events are not timed and must be given one event after the other with reasonable time between events for members to rest,” Rauer said.The test consists of walking two miles while wearing a bunker jacket, donning bunker gear and a self-contained breathing apparatus, dragging a 100-foot hose, performing a two-person, 8-foot ladder throw with a leg lock and performing a 30-foot, two-person, one-body rescue drag.”We’ve got to start somewhere,” Rauer said.He also plans to apply for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that will fully fund the construction of a new fire station, having missed the due date for an earlier FEMA grant, Rauer said.The grant, which became available at the end of May, requires that construction occur on property deeded to the district.Currently, just one property is deeded to the district – the land on Railroad Street, where the current fire station exists. Volunteers built the Peyton fire station when the district was formed in the 1980s.The FEMA grant application must be submitted no later than July 9. Given the short time frame, the board decided not to pursue additional deeded lands, such as a parcel in Peyton Pines.At the request of director Steve Whitaker, the board adopted a new, written citizen complaint procedure that will be posted at the district’s Web site at www.peytonfire.com, also available at the fire station.Whitaker said the complaint procedure has been haphazard in the past. “It’s not good policy for us to sit here and just hear things going on in the community, which is common in this district, and never be given a chance to improve or fix it,” Whitaker said.”Every citizen has the right to file a complaint. Citizens are encouraged to attend monthly board meetings to exercise their right to address the board and chief on any issue they feel needs to be addressed – a signed complaint makes us responsible to give a formal response back.”I want citizens to take charge of their complaints. If they are complaining about something, then stand up and tell us what we’re doing wrong. And we’ll fix it. That’s what we’re here for. We’ll follow their wishes.”
