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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2019)
vernonia rural fire protection district july18 2019 7 Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District Taxes and Death By Trish Smith EMT Basic Vernonia Volunteer Two things are certain in life, taxes and death. We spend our money and valuable time each spring preparing our taxes to see how much we will get back or how much we might have to pay to Uncle Sam. I tend to wait until the last minute and am always a procrastinator bragging, “I do my best work at the last minute.” Taxes, OK fine. But if you wait until the last minute, OF YOUR LAST MINUTE, you may be putting your friends and family in a predicament that no one wants to be in. Death is a subject no one wants to discuss, however, it is im- portant to those of us left behind who have to make important deci- sions. It’s time. We have all heard about liv- ing wills, trusts, and end of life plans, but there may be something else you haven’t heard of: the POLST Regis- try. POLST stands for Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment and creates specific medical orders to be honored by health care work- ers during a medical crisis. Registry means it is an official list available to those in home health, emergency, or other health care services. Un- like your Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) form, EMS personnel are able to call a number to see if a name is regis- tered in case your DNR form is locked away in a safe with your other important paperwork. Similar to a DNR, POLST is mainly designed for folks who have certain religious be- liefs, are sick, elderly, or are expect- ed to pass in the next year or so. The legal work has been done. The only cost to you is a trip to your primary care physician, (PCP). If it is your elderly parent that comes to mind, go with them to their PCP and ask. It will release the burden from them as well as you. When you have an emer- gency and call 911, your local first responders will come and ask many questions: allergies, medica- tions, past medical history, etc. We also will be looking for a BRIGHT PINK form from the fine folks at the POLST Registry. It should be kept on the refrigerator or somewhere you can get to it quickly. Don’t let the doc hand you the form and send you out the door. Go over it thoroughly with your PCP, making certain you understand what boxes to check and that it’s signed. It’s of little use to us if they don’t sign it. In addition to your BRIGHT PINK form, the VRFPD offers a BRIGHT YELLOW medical info form. The yellow card has a place for your name, past medical history, list of meds and allergies. It is handy for your EMS team, especially if you are unable to speak when they get there. If you don’t want to display all your private info on the fridge, put it in a drawer you can easily reach or with your box of meds. Yellow VR- FPD info forms are available at the station or call and ask. One of my favorite things about Vernonia is the many kind peo- ple who genuinely care about each other and take special care of our lo- cal senior citizens. Don’t be deadly wrong, or gravely mistaken! For more in- formation visit polst.org or call 1-888-4-POLSTS (1-888-476-5787). Property Cleanup from being damaged or ripped off by swatting and out access in time of an emergency. If you have any questions, please reach out snagging branches. If your driveway is longer than 150 feet, to us for copies of all the rules and regulations. We then it needs to have a turn around. The turnaround would be happy to come out and take a look at your needs to have the correct turning radius and length, driveway/turnaround as well, so if the unfortunate not only for a small ambulance, but for our largest need arises, the crews can gain access to provide fire apparatus as well. This takes more than most you the best service. realize and usually gets forgotten, leading to long term parking, lack of upkeep and miscel- laneous storage. This turnaround’s vacancy Over the last year Verno- knots, mechanical advantage sys- is critically important nia Fire has been going through an tems, raising and lowering systems, so that responding ve- adventure with Mist-Birkenfeld and so much more. hicles have easy in and We are excited to be getting RFPD. We have called this adven- ture our Rescue Group. This group this group together and hopefully will function as an all-around tech- one day we may have enough inter- nical rescue team in the future. But est from the community and team 1. 1984 Western States 2000 gallon Pumper Tender. Detroit because of our certification levels members that we can form our own powered Allison transmission with 1250GPM pump. Comes with and our recruits experience we have rope rescue team, swift water res- some large diameter hose and 1.5” pre-connect attack lines. cue team, and other technical res- to start small. 2. 1 pallet of miscellaneous fire hose, non-certifiable. We have been focusing a cue teams. For now we’ll continue 3. 1 pallet of miscellaneous fire hose that passed 2018 testing, but is lot on Rope Rescue training. This to improve the services we bring to no longer used by the dept. involves low angle and high angle the community. If you’re interested 4. 1 pallet of 5” large diameter hose. rescue. Every third Wednesday of in seeing what you can do for your 5. 1 set of 4 tires, 17s, less than 100 miles on them. the month we meet with our part- community come down to the Fire 6. 1 set of 3 tires, 50% or so tread left. All terrain. ners from Mist to go over ropes and Department and grab an application. 7. 1 set of 6 wheels, steel, fits 99 f550. While you are out enjoying this wet, ear- ly summer weather, and preparing your property for fire season, please don’t forget your driveway. A topic of discussion is how driveway clearance and occupancy changes over the years. When not properly accessible, the worst happens. Respond- ers can’t make it to help or they do costly damage to public vehicles trying to gain access. Driveways are to be 12 feet wide, with an all-weather road surface that can withstand 70,000 pounds. Plus, four feet clearance on each side with a height of 13 feet. Trees and brush should not be leaning into the roadway from the sides. This ensures that we can access your home quickly and safely. It also keeps our ladder racks and light bars Rescue Group FOR SALE If interested, contact the department during business hours: Monday-Thursday 9am-4pm at (503) 429-8252. Calls responded to June 1-30 Fire Emergency Medical Service Hazardous Condition Service Call Good Intent Severe Weather & Natural Disaster Special Incident No Emergency Found False Alarm Total 2 38 1 11 3 0 0 0 1 56 CAN YOU FILL THESE BOOTS? VOLUNTEERS WANTED Call Dean Smith for more information on free training (503)429-8252