Blog Archives11/2/08-12/23/08

To A Resident

If my home was on fire, I would not want dispatchers to call RM and let them decide whether they were suppose to respond or not. This is twice you have made this request and why would you want your house to be burning down while RM is deciding on whether they are coming or not.

Confused 12/23/08

Scott, agree with you--would much rather have the county handle the load. Think you know, however that even some politicians and
ordinary citizens question whether or not LCF&R is currently up to the job with the current level of funding and current status of personnel and equipment.

This whole discussion is one of public safety and the more I learn, the more convinced I become that Rural Metro has some explaining to do. In addition, it seems the county mayor and others have only allowed this situation to go on because they are unwilling to fund a Fire Dept at a level of safety acceptable to citizens throughout the county. Mayor Arp knows this is a big problem and yet does nothing. An immediate step he could take would be to direct Loudon Communication to notify RM of every fire event and RM could
then determine if they have a contractual obligation to respond.

Even the director of communications acknowledges that 911 was set up as a clearing house with the original intent of eliminating exactly the situation that we now live with. Of course, its not the fault of dispatch, nor the mayor nor the county commission and I agree not the fault of the volunteers. And RM would also tell you its not their fault. Seems kicking this can around the county is what everyone is good at. Where is leadership on this issue. Major Arp are you paying attention.

to smiley

now i see the problem why ppl never smile at you .. you try to belittle them ...you know i didn't know l.c.u.b. had a" branch" at Campbell station road, yet the 1st national bank has "branches" in l.c. Knox county. Loudon.. Eaton crossroads , Dixie lee .farragut..etc, it would be my guess that you will get no smiles here either.

The Loudon County Rescue Squad will turn out more qualified man power and equipment to a fire quicker than Rural Metro could ever hope to. That's probably why RM decided to try to pull a take over. I guess they were having a hard time compeating with the squad.

J,

I am not a member of the VFD, and honestly I do not know the exact details of the capabilities of LCFR versus RM. I'm sure there are other readers here that can address those issues. I have Van's post that RM does not have a tanker at the Dixie Lee location that serves northern Loudon County. That's pretty disturbing considering the rural nature of the area. I live within the 5-mile zone, but never have been approached by RM (I don't live in a subdivision). I am an exception, in that I do have a hydrant in front of my house. I and my immediate three neighbors paid for it out of pocket. The four houses closest to the hydrant would be able to use it, house farther away wouldn't.

My biggest gripe is that RM is trying to force the issue of being exclusive. I believe their motivation is money, pure and simple. As for how the county arrived at this situation, the county was not involved. RM saw an opportunity to make money by selling subscriptions and did so. (Some may say they played on people's fears.) They have a right to try to sell their services like any other company. But, denigrating the LCFR and demanding exclusivity is pretty shabby.

I personally would rather pay a little more in taxes to fund the LCFR properly (if it's not already) than pay RM several hundred dollars a year.

Scott 12/20/08

Hope you don't mind treating this request as an honest attempt to understand one simple issue in Loudon County, FIRE
PROTECTION. So please don't treat this request as adversarial, it's not meant to be.

I don't understand a concept you put forth of "some people choosing to purchase premium fire protection." We either have proper and adequate fire protection in all areas of Loudon County or we don't. Are you saying the LCF & rescue is adequate by state standards to provide fire protection to all county residents? If county commission can answer YES to this question, we can all cancel RM subscriptions.

I have lived in 5 different states and have never encountered a system of premium fire protection or for that matter two different fire department , one volunteer and the other premium within the same jurisdiction. Speaking only for myself, I don't want to purchase fire protection from a for profit corporation if the local fire fighting volunteers have the necessary equipment and personnel to do the job.

Can you advise your opinion on these issues? Are you a volunteer fire-fighter? How did the county arrive at this strange situation of
having a county fire-fighting force and also allowing RM to provide overlapping service?

To A Resident:
Your premise that the communication center is a "clearing house" is way off base. Those people who subscribed to Rural Metro elected to pay for an additional, "premium" service. Yes, programming the 911 center's computers to show who is a RM subscriber is possible, but the county is under no obligation to do so. I have Fleenor's security system service on my home. Should the 911 center's computers be programmed to show that? No. How about my choice for telephone service or cable? All possible, but no.

LCFR would still come to your house if you are a RM subscriber. So the idea that you could sue the county for not calling RM is preposterous. Now, suing RM because they didn't tell you that they should be called directly may be a different story.

Scott 12/19/08

I would like to address a real problem we have in our schools, LCHS in particular.

Everyone likes to talk about any problem with the students, whether it affects them or not, however no one seems to ever address the situation we have with our teachers.

I teach my kids to respect their teachers, and anyone in authority, and we would like to think that our children's teachers, whom they spend most of their time with respect them also.

The reality of it is that our teachers, although not all, but many of them yell at them all too often, and humiliate them in front of their class more often than you or I know. (How many times are they too embarrassed to say what their day has really been like?)

There are teachers who will scream at the children for asking to go to the clinic for a Tylenol, then embarrass them in front of everyone.

Ask your kids how was their day REALLY? And ask yourself, and your school board why are there LC residents who refuse to send their kids to LCHS?

I think our kids deserve to be shown a bit of respect also.

Concerned Parent Lenoir City 12/19/08

A resident said:

After all, fire protection and public safety is the job of commission and The County Mayor. The evidence, to date, seems to suggest that County Commission and Rural Metro would both prefer to play politics with public safety coming in dead last.

Mayor Arp lives on the other side of the county- if it does not concern him, he will not waste his time on it. He only faces issues where he benefits. The same goes for county commission. Now if he were to receive a portion of the subscription money that Rural Metro takes in, he would be on the job in a flash.

Lulu 12.19.08

Just when I thought it was quiet. Well, now the commissioners of the 5th and 6th, no wait, ALL commissioners need to start thinking of ways to strengthen the LCFR. I have a suggestion. Change the charter to allow them to sell subscriptions just like GBFD. But you say I pay taxes, well you are correct. But if GBFD can do it, and by the way they are very superior in fire protection, then we should let LCFR do it too. No more allowing someone else go ask for money. Oh and remember the Christmas trees? They had to stop it because they were loosing money. Bring it back Bill, and be sure to send Christmas cards to all the Avalon folk next year and ask them to contribute and come buy a Christmas tree.

Rural Metro & Loudon County Commissioners

The primary purpose of our local county government is to provide education for its citizens as well as police and fire protection. A
citizen should not be expected to sort out which agency should be called in the event of a fire anymore than a citizen would be expected to determine which police agency to call in the event of a home invasion. A 911 COMMUNICATION CENTER IS SET UP FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE, TO BE A CLEARING HOUSE.

The rationale provided by the Loudon Communication Center for not calling Rural Metro is simple, "Its not our protocol." If it were their responsibility, they could simply pick up the phone and call Rural Metro letting them know a fire emergency exists at a specific address and Rural Metro could then determine if they had a contractual liability to respond.. And again, this problem is not ..that cumbersome--computers could easily be programmed as to which agency should respond. The Communication Center through its
computers make these determinations every day when they choose to dispatch LCSD rather than LCPD.

It may not be Loudon County Communication Center responsibility to resolve this issue but county commission and , in particular, Mayor Arp should have addressed it a long time ago. After all, fire protection and public safety is the job of commission and The County Mayor. The evidence, to date, seems to suggest that County Commission and Rural Metro would both prefer to
play politics with public safety coming in dead last. One fact is indisputable, if a house burns and or lives lost because of this
political pissing contest, the county and Rural Metro will surely be sued. This email will be put in letter form and sent to Mayor Arp

A Resident 12/18/08

Is anybody surprised that Russ Johnson refuses to investigate the 321 land deal? Let's see. The Loudon High School fire marshal life safety issues where Johnson tried to call off the fire marshal. Those involved? Russ Johnson, Edward Headlee, Dave Hemelright. 321 land deal. Those evolved? Edward Headlee, Dave Hemelright and now Johnson wont investigate. Hum.

The Rural Metro thing is no more than a power play to force the county in giving them an exclusive contract in Loudon County. They have had a gold mine for many years and wanted more. Rural Metro has been collecting fees for years in Loudon County and I don't think they have ever put out a house fire in all those years in Loudon County.

It would be impossible for 911 to keep up with who was a RM customer. RM customers constantly are adding and droping or moving away. Why would it be 911's responsibility to keep up with all that. The Loudon County rescue Squad is far more capable of handeling any emergency in Loudon County than RM.

Mr. Smith,
I understand your frustration with Rural Metro, and I'd be calling for a refund as well. But, I don't understand you putting the onus on Loudon County for not making you aware of the 911 call direction. It should be all on Rural Metro. Remember they are a for-profit corporation.

I'm sure their people in uniform do fine jobs, but the upper management has had some issues.

Scott 12/17/08

Mr. Smith,

You wrote,
Finally, how long has the Loudon Communication staff been aware of this pending disaster? Why didn't the Loudon Communications director deal with this issue immediately by making all residents under contract with RURAL METRO aware of the fact that they were not protected by using the 911 system. I trust the answer won't come back "ITS NOT MY JOB."

To answer this question, you have always had fire protection when calling the 911 system. If you or someone else in your subdivision called 911 for a fire, 911 dispatch would send Loudon County Fire Rescue to respond even though you may have been a subscriber to Rural / Metro Fire. LCFR has been the primary fire service for this county since the 1950's. Rural Metro started selling subscriptions in this county somewhere around 1980. The former LCFR Chief John Parris tried to get this stopped once he became aware of this but to no avail. It has just been until recently that the problem has finally been able to be remedied.

As for the Loudon County Communications, they were doing their job and dispatching the primary fire service for this county which is LCFR. Therefore, I believe that you might want to ask Rural / Metro Fire this question and not Loudon County Communications.

Thank You,
Michael Hodge
LCFR 12/17/08

In part I am writing to express gratitude to this web-site and commissioner Wayne Gardin for flooding sunlight on a very serious issue affecting many residents of east Loudon County and in particular the Tanglewood sub-division. Tanglewood lies in both Knox and Loudon Counties. Rural Metro has, for the ten years I have been a resident , collected fees from Tanglewood residents, with the promise of responding in the event of a residential fire.

This evening, January 15, 2008, I phoned the Loudon County Communication Center and asked a simple question. If this call was
being made regarding a fire at my home, who would be dispatched? The answer was "Loudon County Fire. I then asked why not Rural Metro since they contracted with me and my neighbors to provide fire protection and billed us $300.00 for the current year? The answer came back" we have no protocol to contact RURAL METRO." , I contacted Loudon Communications using a direct phone number and then asked would your answer have been different had I dialed 911? The answer was no, " Loudon Fire and Rescue would be dispatched."

It is logical to assume that RURAL METRO has been aware of this situation for a long time but were, however, fully willing to bill
residents for services they knew they would never deliver. It is not logical to assume that should my house burn I would look up RURAL METRO in the phone book and call them directly. It is also fair to assume that all residents billed by RURAL METRO would respond to a fire in their home by expecting a call to 911 would require a response from the corporation under contract to provide fire services. Well, to make these assumptions a person could be dead wrong.

Finally, how long has the Loudon Communication staff been aware of this pending disaster? Why didn't the Loudon Communications director deal with this issue immediately by making all residents under contract with RURAL METRO aware of the fact that they were not protected by using the 911 system. I trust the answer won't come back "ITS NOT MY JOB."

Answers to these questions and more need to be forthcoming immediately and RURAL METRO needs to reimburse citizens for service they were never going to receive. I will notify the membership of the TANGLEWOOD HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION TO log on to VANSHAVER.COM to read this communication as well as the on-going saga.

Also thanks to Chief Tony Aikens (Sheriff's Department) for his response to our request for help regarding a recent rash of burglaries. We contacted both Knox and Loudon County Sheriff's Department as our neighborhood lies in both counties. Sheriff Jones never bothered to respond.

Sincerely,

James E. Smith, treasurer
TANGLEWOOD HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION 12/16/08

I wanted to say a few things about the LCFR and the commissioners. They better support these guys. This squad has been in Loudon County for a long time and always provided help to those in need with little funding from the county. I don't know many fire dept that operate on 80k a year. If they were as important as the SO then maybe they would be number one too. Why do they have to go door to door to ask for money. GBFD has subscriptions and they have more fire trucks and personnel than LCFD, and they are volunteers just like LCFR.

A blog was posted back in September on the placement of the new City benches in front of the Roane State Building (they are in the middle of the sidewalk) and no one responded. Has anyone else seen where these benches are placed, if so, are they placed according to Federal ADA Laws? If they are placed according the Federal Guidelines then I'm okay with it, if not then maybe Lenoir City Officials should get someone to place them according to Federal Laws.

I think the Loudon County Sheriff's Department and all law enforcement agencies involved should be congratulated for their diligence and professionalism in the capture of Christopher Ellis. Law enforcement is a very difficult, dangerous and for the most part, unappreciated occupation, so I would like to say "Thank you for a job well done" .

First of all let me say that I indeed do not need your forgiveness I get mine from a greater power than you. Had you given me the opportunity I would have been the first to apologize. I believe Van has taken the blame for the mistake and it has been laid to rest. Now as for you working there I do not care where you work, but since I just was at the justice the other day on some business I did notice that their bathrooms were working efficiently and probably do not need the assistance of a plumber right now but in the future maybe they can contact you. lol I would not in the least care if Steve Cook is Sheriff or Tim Guider, of course I have always been a Guider supporter and will continue to do so in the next election that is not here nor there, as far as I am concerned both are fine men and have done nothing to me. I would just like for anyone who gets the election to do the best job they know how, and I believe this could happen for either men if we as a community will only stand behind them and help them instead of tearing them down.

I don't believe Joe was being negative towards the sheriff's department, I was just explaining what I heard and saw on the websites and eventually the news stations. I hope I wasn't derogatory towards Joe, as I did not mean to be. Although I don't always have the utmost respect for some members of the sheriff's department, in this particular situation I believe they did a very good job. Unfortunately, the suspect got away from them. This man has a criminal history and has been good at running from police, based on what I've seen about him.

Again, I apologize if I made any negative remarks. I never intended to.

David in LC 11/8/08

I will take the credit for the misunderstanding on JTP's previous post that has now been removed. JTP sent me what I thought was a blog but was in fact a request to post the story of the home invasion on my site ASAP. I misunderstood his request and thought he wanted me to post his email ASAP. The mistake was mine.

I do not feel that JTP was in any way being derogatory toward any law enforcement but was wanting the home invasion story published quickly.

Where I work there is no TV and we cannot listen to the radio. I work 12 hrs and came home to learn of this. I did not mean for that email to go out it was for van only but I wasn't clear about it to him. The news was not on when I got home, I just heard it from friends of mine on the phone. I was asking Van to put this up on his site because it needed to be there too and when I looked it wasn't.

Quote "THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT WORKED TIRELESSLY ALL WEEKEND TRYING TO FIND THIS GUY, AND YET YOU STILL FIND THE URGE TO GRIPE ABOUT THEM. IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THINGS THEN MAYBE YOU CAN GET OUT AND GET A JOB WITH THEM, BUT THEN AGAIN IF YOU CAN'T WATCH THE NEWS THEN MAYBE YOU CAN FIND YOUR WAY DOWN THERE TO GET THE APPLICATION"

Now for you miss, I NEVER said anything about the sheriffs dept doing a bad job or anything about making a change. Do you feel there should be a change there. You are apparently ill hearted about people saying things about the sheriff dept but it is my right to if I want. I for one personally know each officer there and in the cities and have never said anything about these guys and gals. They work hard and put their lives on the line everyday. I hope you find it in your heart to apologize but I know it won't happen so I will say I forgive you for your dirty off basis comments and wish you well. I will tell you that when Steve Cook is sheriff in 2010,I would think about getting a job there but in your mind I bet you will not want that to happen.

I too listen to my scanner alot, and I heard the call. It was probably about 20 minutes later that I heard the report on the radio. It could have been on the radio sooner than that and I did not hear it because I was listening to the scanner instead. I think they did a terriffic job of getting the info out there while they themselves were conducting an investigation, setting up a search, and taking care of the victims involved. I dont think it could have happened any faster.

I would like to say that I am concerned about the elderly that live in that vicinity. Obviously this man remained in that area, he had to be somewhere, and the area was completely searched. Which means he was inside somewhere. Now he has a vehicle and to my knowledge that vehicle has not been seen, which means it could be in a garage. SO if you know people who live in that area or if you are a neighbor of an elderly person in that area, stop and take the time to check on their well being. I believe it is possible he could still be there(wherever he was for 3 days).

Ron 11/7/08

You know, I am a little tired of this old quote. Every time someone has something to say, this is the knee jerk response. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get a job being a law enforcement officer in Loudon County? I personally know a half-dozen certified police officers with experience that haven't even been able to get an interview, much less a job there.

I agree that some people need to whine because that's how they are. But don't take every post critical of Law Enforcement as a direct jab at the Officers. There are things that are wrong, and it affects the Patrolmen and the Corrections people. But they can't complain. They can't go public. They rely on YOU, the public, to take notice and help them.

DO YOU NOT HAVE A TELEVISION A RADIO OR ACCESS TO A NEWSPAPER? THIS HAS BEEN ALL OVER THE NEWS SINCE IT HAPPENED YESTERDAY, AND BEFORE THEN SINCE FRIDAY NIGHT WHEN THE FIRST INCIDENT HAPPENED. NOW MIND YOU IN BETWEEN THE ALL SO EVER IMPORTANT AND WAY PAST DUE FIRING OF PHILLIP FULMER. IT IS ON VAN'S SITE AS WELL. I DON'T THINK THAT IT MATTERS THAT IT IS CHRIS BOWENS PARENTS, ALTHOUGH I DO KNOW THEM VERY WELL AND THINK THAT IT IS HORRIBLE THAT IT HAPPENED TO THEM AND I AM VERY GRATEFUL THAT THEY ARE SAFE AND ESCAPED UNHARMED.

THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT WORKED TIRELESSLY ALL WEEKEND TRYING TO FIND THIS GUY, AND YET YOU STILL FIND THE URGE TO GRIPE ABOUT THEM. IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THINGS THEN MAYBE YOU CAN GET OUT AND GET A JOB WITH THEM, BUT THEN AGAIN IF YOU CAN'T WATCH THE NEWS THEN MAYBE YOU CAN FIND YOUR WAY DOWN THERE TO GET THE APPLICATION.