Lately it seems scams are becoming more frequent and more devious- IRS tax scams, identity theft, hackers, and so on.  Now this one involves us.  My neighbor got a phone call from this institution soliciting donations.  He is a skeptic so he asked for them to send something in the mail.  Attached is the pamphlet.  Looking at the pamphlet everything seems legitimate.  Yet, he called the Better Business Bureau and they told him to be wary.  They discussed how this "non-profit" organization takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars but hand out a very small percentage of their earnings.  Attached is a link to their tax forms as presented by the Attorney General of Illinois.  You will see they took in $379,413 but only gave out a very small portion of the $$$... the best I can see is $6000.  After that there were $300,000 in contractor service charges, $45,000 of employee paychecks, and the last bit on business expenses. 

We  put this on our website to warn the community we will never solicit them over the phone and our current fundraisers include pictures and reflective address signs. 

http://ag.state.il.us/PDF_IMAGES/Indexes20110131/01053995-2009.pdf

From The Decatur Daily
by Catherine Godbey

Volunteer firefighters recall saving teen’s life after his heart stopped; now they consider each other family.

PRICEVILLE — It was a lazy spring afternoon when the radio crackled to life.

“Difficulty breathing at 331 Wildwood Way.”

Half a mile away, Todd Mehl rushed to his truck. Minutes later, the volunteer firefighter arrived on the scene.

In the bathroom, 18-year-old James Stuart laid, unmoving. Mehl checked his pulse and felt a faint beat.

“Something told me to check it again. The second time I didn’t feel anything,” Mehl said.The trained Emergency Medical Technician sounded the “full arrest” alert and initiated CPR.

“I knew I had to keep it going until the cavalry arrived,” Mehl said. “In my head, it felt like an eternity. In reality, it was probably two minutes.”

At a family barbecue, Kevin Worley heard Mehl’s call. At the Priceville Fire Department, Worley and Steve Wilson picked up a defibrillator. If needed, the machine, hopefully, could shock Stuart’s heart back to life.

At the house, Worley and Wilson found Mehl leaning over Stuart, pumping his chest. There was still no breath, no pulse, no life. The Brewer High School student who loved basketball, football and trains was turning blue. After each round of CPR, Mehl stopped and waited. Nothing.

With each passing minute the odds for survival faded. According to statistics, only 2 percent of patients in full arrest survive. They needed to get Stuart’s heart beating immediately.

“You can’t think about it. You have to go on instincts,” Wilson said. “But when a child is involved, a little more goes into it. We just had to do what we were trained to do.”

Worley and Wilson unzipped the defibrillator, tore open the pads, placed them on Stuart’s chest and prepared to administer a shock after the sixth round of CPR.

Then everything stopped as Mehl checked for a pulse. There it was, a faint beat. And then, the shallow breathing.

“It was amazing to see his color come back and see him pink up. It was an awesome thing,” said Worley.

“That is exactly what it is, awesome,” Wilson said.

“You can do this for a number of years and never experience that,” said Wilson, who also serves as the department’s lay chaplain.

“There are no words to describe it. The only thing I can relate it to is seeing your children born. There is nothing like it,” Mehl added.

The ambulance arrived minutes later and whisked Stuart to Huntsville Hospital where he was airlifted to Birmingham.

Left behind were Mehl, Worley and Wilson. They repacked their bags, zipped up the defibrillator and went back to their lives, not knowing if Stuart would survive.

“We always want to find out what happens to the patients. The bad thing is we can’t because of HIPPA laws and privacy issues,” Wilson said.
But they needed to know.

Mehl returned to the Stuart home several days later and knocked on the door. Nancy Stuart answered. James, she said, had survived.

That was more than a year ago.

Honorary firefighter

“I’m doing great. The doctor says, well, I’m perfect,” said James Stuart.

Sitting with Mehl, Worley and Wilson at the fire station on Bethel Road, Stuart proudly wore a Priceville Firefighter shirt. After all, he is an honorary member.

“I don’t remember anything about that night. The first thing I remember is waking up in Birmingham the next day,” Stuart said.

On April 11, Stuart celebrated his 19th birthday. He is working toward his GED and dreams of becoming a railroad engineer. Nancy Stuart said a heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a congenital condition that occurs when parts of the left side of the heart do not develop completely — caused James to have a seizure and his heart to stop beating.

“Together, (the firefighters) worked to save my son’s life. Using only hands-on CPR, they got his heart back beating,” Nancy Stuart said. “The three heroes I met on April 25, 2010 are, thankfully, a part of our family now. James has two birthdays due to these wonderful men.”

They shy away from the term hero. They were just doing what they trained to do.

‘We are not heroes’

“We are not heroes,” Mehl said. “Heroes die in the line of duty.”

“I just thank God that we were given the opportunity to use what we knew to help somebody,” Worley said.

But to Nancy Stuart, there is no other word to describe Mehl, Worley and Wilson. They are heroes.

“What these men did was amazing. I will never be able to thank them enough,” she said.

Every few months, the volunteer firefighters meet up with the Stuarts. According to Nancy Stuart, they are all one family now.

“Every time I see him it is amazing. The first time I saw him it brought tears to my eyes,” said Worley.

Mehl, Worley and Wilson represent three of the 40 volunteer firemen who serve Priceville, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Last year, they responded to more than 800 calls. A majority of calls come in the middle of the night.

While the community sleeps, they are removing trees from the roads, extricating individuals from cars and responding to fires.

“These are amazing men,” said Wilson, who works during the day at International Paper. “They are a group of people who get up in the middle of the night to protect others. I am lucky to be associated with them.”

Worley spends his days at 3M, and Mehl works at Nucor.

They are volunteer firefighters. They do not get paid. They do it to serve the community.

“We are blessed to have this opportunity to give back and serve and do for others,” Wilson said.

http://townofpriceville.com/2011/05/16/%e2%80%98it-felt-like-an-eternity%e2%80%99/

http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/05/north_alabama_
firefighters_bec.html

Morgan County will be under a BURN BAN from May 1 until October 31, 2011.  No burning of anything is permitted.  Here it is, simply put:
-You must have a state-issued burn permit from the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC)
-Any loop-holes around needing a burn permit, created by AFC, are null and void because the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has more restrictive policies.  Realize AFC and ADEM are two different regulating agencies with rules on burning.
-ADEM will fine you for failure to follow the BURN BAN.  Their restriction also ends on October 31st.

As of October 19, 2010 the Priceville Volunteer Fire Department adopted a new set of operating guidelines to govern the operations of the department.  Many of the new guidelines were written with the safety of our teammates in mind.  The biggest change is we have now established a minimum requirements for a member to enter a structure fire.  If you would like to see these new guidelines and minimum standards training, flip over to our "Documents" page and check them out.

Our job, here at Priceville Fire Department, is to help the community.  Now, we are asking for some help from the community.  Lately, we have had a rash of incidents where people have run over our fire hoses.  It doesn't matter, whether big or small, filled with water or empty, PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE OVER OUR FIRE HOSES!  You will need to find another path around our hose... otherwise you are stuck where you are located until we are done.

To give an example, we recently had a house fire where three sections of our hose were run over.  The hose itself can cost around $700 per section ($2100 possibly ruined after this fire).  Even if the hose doesn't appear to be damaged, we still have to send it out to be inspected (more $$$) to ensure it won't rupture on us in the future.  If you do run our hose over, it is likely we will be asking for your insurance information to bill you for the damages (maybe for a brand-new hose if it damaged beyond reasonable repair).  Another way you can be charged for damages is via a police citation.  A ticket, with court costs, can run near $200.  Finally, if that is not convincing enough, there is a possibility you could injure, or even kill, our teams fighting the fire if you rupture the hose as that water is what keeps them alive inside of a fire.


Here is an analogy that can put this into perspective:  While driving our fire trucks we run into your car.  Do you forgive us and not ask us to pay to fix your car?  Unless you are the nicest millionaire on earth, the likely answer is going to be "No!"  You rely on the car to fulfill some function for you and you weren't the cause of its damage.  The same philosophy goes for us.  If you run over the hose, you can possibly damage it... this can hurt firefighters... it will take the hose out of service until it can be tested... this leaves a truck short of hose to help someone in the event of a fire... and it would have cost us money we should put into serving you, the community, in a better way.


If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Below are the links to the Alabama Driver's Handbook and the the state law about not driving over a fire hose.  Thanks, in advance, for your assistance, and please be safe out there!


Driver's Handbook (link to .pdf file) (.pdf file page 67, book page 65)
FOLLOWING EMERGENCY VEHICLES
Only vehicles on necessary official business are permitted to follow within 500 feet of emergency vehicles on an emergency run. Don’t drive over an unprotected fire hose unless authorized to do so by a police officer or fire department official.

Alabama State Law (Section 32-5A-59)
Crossing fire hose.
No vehicle shall be driven over any unprotected hose of a fire department when laid down on any street, private road or driveway to be used at any fire or alarm of fire, without the consent of the fire department official or police officer in command.

(Acts 1980, No. 80-434, p. 604, §11-110.)

I believe we are all guilty of doing it... being distracted while driving.  How many of us eat, check out cars next to us, talk on our phones, or even worse, text while driving?  How many times have you been driving down the road and wondered "What in the world is that car in front of me doing?" as they weave in their lane or go 10 mph under the speed limit?  You pass them only to see the driver running their mouth on the cell phone or trying to read a text message.  All of these extra things we do distract us from our primary job: safely operating a motor vehicle. 

They say that driving while texting while driving is the same impairment as driving when you have had two alcoholic beverages.  How many of you would feel comfortable driving or being on the road with someone who has had two or more drinks?  Think of all the things you can miss in the time it takes for you to read a text message.  You might justify it to yourself that you only look away for a couple seconds.  Then I pose to you this: How many times have you stopped with only inches to spare?  How many times have you caught that other car trying to change lanes into you out of the corner of your eye?  How many times were you lucky to notice that piece of trash in the road and avoid it?  Realize, when you are going 60 mph, you are traveling 88 feet per second.  After two seconds (you know, the time you felt comfortable looking away from the road to the phone) you would have gone 176 feet.  It looks like you aren't going to miss anything by inches when you look away for a "couple seconds".

The moral of the story is the Priceville Fire Department responds to many car accidents.  Many of which are caused by distracted driving.  Click on the picture above for a two minute video.  It shows bus drivers texting while driving.  Would you want them driving you or your kids anywhere?  However, how many of you do it with your families in the car?  Arrive alive!

Do you remember this famous saying?  It was created in 1944 to educate the public on the dangers of forest fires.  According to NOAA Satellite and Information Service, wildfires consumed 5,159,907  acres (8062.4 sq miles) in 2008.  That is more area than the states of Connecticut and Delaware combined.  According the Insurance Journal, the 2007 wild fires in southern California created claims in the billions of dollars.

How can we do our part to prevent the destruction from affecting our lives?  The state of Alabama imposes a "No Burn Ban" from May 1st to October 31st.  This covers 12 counties, including Morgan County (in case you forgot, Priceville is in Morgan County).  Actually, there are two agencies who enforce this ban.  The first one, Alabama Department of Environmental Managament (ADEM for short), imposes the ban because they are trying to limit the air pollution coming from the fire.  The second agency is the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC).  They have the same mission as Smokey the Bear since it is typically dry conditions during that time of year.

After May 1st, you are subject to $1000 in fines and possible jail time. 

Here is what typically happens during the burn ban season:
--We get a call of a brush fire.  It might not be from the person burning the pile, it might be from the angry neighbor who has the smoke blowing into their yard. 
--We will respond to put out the fire.  Usually, when we arrive, the owner will say they were watching the fire.  They just went inside "for a minute" and must have gotten out of control then.
--Then we will put out the fire.  If we are called to any fire, we are required to put it out (the state says it will not issue permits during this timeframe for personal burns).

Now, let's learn from this.  Let's assume you legally burn your piles before the burn ban goes into effect:
--Set up your pile away from your house, the woods, your pastures, your farm animals, your kids, or any other combustibles.  Don't forget embers from the fire can fly into other areas.
--Keep an eye on the weather.  If the wind is out of control, what do you think will happen to your burn pile?
--Have a hose that can reach all the way around the burn pile ready, as well as a shovel or extinguisher nearby.  Beforehand, wet the area around the burn pile to minimize the spread.  Sometimes, you might be better off burning after it rains.  Just put a tarp over the what you want to burn (you take measures to protect your firewood, don't you?).  It is easier to prevent the spread than it is to fight it when it gets out of control.
--Watch your use of accelerants.  I know everyone uses gas/diesel to "help" the fire out.  This can cause the fire to spread quickly or burn you in the process.  Also, be careful of what you burn.  Burn yard matter, put the rest in the trash.  Realize, some things, when burned, pollute the environment or make a chemical worse than the original material.  Another thing to avoid is pressurized containers since they tend to explode under the pressures of heating.
--Finally, stay outside with your fire.  If you keep an eye on it, the fire is less likely to get away from you.

If you pay attention and plan ahead, you will be spared some headaches.  Besides that, I am sure laying in a hammock on a sunny day is a much more fun way to spend your summer days...