German Township Fire - Rescue

NEWS ITEMS AT OR ABOUT GERMAN TOWNSHIP

Hurrican Ike!

On September 14, Hurricane Ike blew into town. Winds as high as 60mph were reported. German Fire had 14 runs to check on down fires and roads blocked by wires. One incident was saved in pictures.


A birthday party for Zachary Fisher was held at German Fire Department and it turned into private tour of company 9. Go to the pictures from link below.

Birthday bour of company 9


Chief Buckman received a copy of an email from German Township resident, Ed Small, who had some thoughts about eliminating the all township offices in Indiana. We pass along his email for your consideration.

From: Ed Small [mailto:ed.small]
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 11:02 AM
To: mr.philco@.com
Cc: Becker, Vaneta; Stewart III, Mizell; Buckman, John
Subject: Townships

Mr. Ramirez ....

        I favor the idea of the elimination of the Township portion of County government, BUT there are areas which I STRONGLY FAVOR the Township concept.  Let me explain:

1.    I LIKE our German Township Volunteer Fire Department!  I would not like to see it taken over by the County or the City.

2.    For most all of us OVER 65, the Civic Center is NOT CONVENIENT.  It is difficult to PARK near there, there are very few Handicap spaces, and not nearly enough regular parking spaces.  Then, it is generally a LONG WALK to the building, then the elevator, and a long walk to the offices.  This building and premises, were NOT DESIGNED for Senior Citizens! 

The Township Offices are truly a NICE CONVENIENCE! 

        HOWEVER, other than our German Township Fire Department, THERE ARE "WAYS TO COMBAT #2.:

1.    Most of our local banks have offices located in and out of the city limits.  They could employ specialized personnel to handle most of the problems that face the "out of the city residents."  In addition, the Banks could BID for the business, thus INCREASING their potential customer base, and thus get more business.  I feel sure that Old National Bank gets new customers because they collect Property Taxes twice a year.

 2.  Check lists for "County Services Available" could be made available both on line and via mail.   The City and  County residents, would be VERY USER FRIENDLY.  Office Names, phone numbers, WHO they should ask for. AND, the listing  would give the Website. 

       On the website,  the user would get the Listing that they checked, then:  HOW TO GET TO WHERE THEY WANT TO GO ... FOR THAT SERVICE,with instructions as a LISTING: 1,2,3,4, ETC. .... NOT in paragraph form!  Use the KISS system: "Keep It Simple Sam!"

 3.    In addition, with new technology, just like Old National out on First Avenue, the two way TV will someday become a reality for County Government, where  the user will be talking to a "person" rather than a blank screen, and not having to type in the answers ... rather it will be the equivalent of an 800 number, and the ordeal of Websites of Government will be greatly simplified.

*****************************

        Mr. Ramirez, I hope that this gives you some ideas ... thank you for your editorial.  I hope that this email will be beneficial to you.  If you, or any of the Cc group have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

 The VERY BEST to ALL of you. 

Most sincerely,

Ed Small

Resident of German Township


Lt. Tamara Esche competes
at Miss Indiana Contest

In February, Lt. Tamara Esche was crowned as Miss Ohio Valley and qualified to compete in the Miss Indiana 2008 contest that is being held in June.

The Evansville Courier & Press ran a nice article about her quest for the state title as Miss Indiana.(http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/feb/06/not-averagefirefighter/) Tamara has gone through the priliminaries on June 19 and 20th. She sent a couple of shots from 19th and promises more. She is hopeful for a title but as she said, "of course I really want to make the finals, but no matter what, I know I did everything that I could possibly do, and I feel great about that."

Lee and Tamara on 6/19/08Tamara

Pictues from C&P

Miss Ohio ValleyTamara at company 9

GOOD LUCKY, TAMARA!

Tamara in parade

Parade Pictures

Tamara in finals

Final Contest Pictures


Junior Fire Wardens from Cynthia Heights, Resurrection and St. Joseph Schools attend annual picnic at German Fire Dept.

Jr Fire Wardens 2008


 

Chief John M. Buckman III receives Governor's Award

Chief BuckmanIn the April edition of The IDHS Hoosier Responder Newsletter, Executive Director Joe Wainscott announced members of IDHS team had been selected to receive one of this year's Governor's Awards for outstanding service and contributions to the State of Indiana and IDHS. Chief Buckman, who is Chief Indiana Firefighter Training System, was recognized as an individual award recipient. "For the past three years he has worked diligently to develop and implement the first state funded and supported fire training system in Indiana.

John established a local fire training committee in all ten Homeland Security districts, helped each district complete its training needs, assessments, and plans, identify and select a fiscal agent for each district, identify and select a district training hub, and establish an effective budget. He has aided the District Fire Training Committee in the delivery of National Fire Academy courses across the state through the use of NFA grant funds to firefighters around the state. He has also successfully promoted the NFA's Indiana Weekend, more than doubling the number of Indiana firefighters participating within just two years. Although, Indiana had a statute which outlined the mandatory level of training required for an individual to become a firefighter, no uniform curriculum for this training had been developed. This led to very poor test results by the new trainees.

Buckman organized a team of subject matter experts, developed a curriculum with learning objectives and practical skill expectations and created a comprehensive instructor guide, student manual, power point presentation, and other support materials. The instructional materials have now been supplied to more than 1000 fire instructors and nearly 4000 students in the past two years, resulting in a 15% increase in test scores for mandatory fire test.

Today, he continues to lead several other fire training initiatives including Fire Chief Leadership Seminars, Firefighter Safety Initiatives, Courage To Be Safe Program, Instructor In-Service Seminars, Recruiting and Retaining Volunteer Firefighter Programs, and Hazardous Materials and Technical Rescue Training Initiatives."

As his director said, take a few moments to congratulate him and thank him for a well done job.


Annual Awards Banquet

On Sunday February 17, German Fire Department held its annual Awards Banquet. The banquet was held at the FOP Camp on Happe Rd. The turnout was pretty good considering the recent weather and the short notice. The food was great thanks to Lisa Eickchoff and her crew of Tim, Brittney, Don Neel, Mike Plumlee and Ben Woodward. A talk about reporting incidents to the state offices was given by Gary Robinson,Indiana Office of Homeland Security Grants and Risk Manager. The Reverent Steve Walker gave a talk on being a care giving servant.

Service awards were given out to the following:

Other awards

Volunteer of the year Scott Laugel

The Chief's Award Divison Chief Don Neel


New Officers Appointed

Capt. Jeremy Hoesli On Monday November 26, Assistant Chief David Bretz announced two new promotions of members of the department.

Effective November 30th, Lt. Jeremy Hoesli is promoted to Captain and will have the designation  8A10 and Captain Dave Magary will assume the designation 8A7.

Lt. Mike Tanner Firefighter Mike Tanner was the next one on the promotion list and becomes a Lieutenant. Mike will be have the call number of 8A13.


Explorer Scouts put on training exercise for German Firefighters

The scouts from Explorer troop 399 again did a great job of acting as injured victims of a hay ride that went bad. Click on image to see pictures.

Assistant Chief David Bretz is Kiwanis Firefighter of the year

David Bretz The Kiwanis Club of the East Evansville named Assistant Chief David Bretz as Volunteer Firefighter of the Year at their 13th annual awards dinner on Thursday October 18, 2007. Chief Bretz has been a member of the German Fire Department for 19 years. Although he is the facilities manager at Holiday Health Care he has made about 60% of the runs this year. The chief is always glad when someone else has incident command so that he can get in there and get his hands dirty. Congratulations to Assistant Chief Bretz!! For more pictures taken at the presentation.

After Two years
Eastbrook Mobile Home Park Tornado

On November 6th 2005,shortly before 2:00am a tornado tore through the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and destroyed most of the homes. The same tornado had hit Ellis Park Race track (On Nov. 25 an air-condition unit from Ellis Park was found in the debris at Eastbrook). The storm then continued trough Newburgh, doing considerable damage to a number of sub-divisions then grazed Booneville and struck hard again in northern Warrick County. There were many deaths. Due to the number of pictures there is a special page for these pictures. Eastbrook Pictures

Items that had appeared on this page are moved to our Picture Album

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