Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Recap of Feb 15th Dunwoody City Council Work Session


Below are the items discussed with links to the documents and my comments.

1. EMS response discussion.  (deferred for guest speaker who missed but I am learning of gaps in EMS coverage in City.)

2. Solid Waste Management Plan discussion. (Suggested we adopt DeKalb's plan.)

3. Recycling options discussion. (I see gains to be made in recycling rate without charging more to residents.)

4. Appointment of four additional members to Design Review Advisory Committee.  (Mayor's decision, he missed meeting.)

5. Wintercrest subdivision street renaming discussion.  (I would hate to change my address but for safety sake these residents decided to do it.)

6. Residential fire suppression sprinkler systems discussion. (I'm on the fence for future single family construction, not happy with the cost estimates given by staff but believe that cluster homes may need more protection.)

7. Ordinance to amend Chapter 16 Offenses and Violations re: Noise.  (Though I understand peace and quiet is desired in residential Dunwoody, I think more harm than good would come from the change in commercial districts.)

8. Discussion of text amendment for regulation of taxi cabs

9. Town and Gown discussion. (Would like to see a Dunwoody HS Student serving on committee.)

10. 2010 City Council Meeting Schedule. (Council cutting back to two meetings per month, 2nd & 4th Monday.)

5 comments:

John Heneghan said...

Rick Callihan was at the meeting and as already posted one meeting update with another to follow.

http://dunwoodytalk.blogspot.com

Someone has already asked about my EMS comment so I will print what I was told.

"Currently Dunwoody has 3 Fire Stations in the city they are staffed with the following.

Station 18 - 1 Fire Engine, 1 Ladder Truck, 1 Ambulance. Currently the staffing at station 18 has only 1 Paramedic this Paramedic rotates month to month from the Fire Engine to the Ambulance so when the Paramedic is assigned to the Fire Engine for the month the ambulance is not staffed with a Paramedic meaning it is considered basic life support as opposed to advanced life support and vice versa.

Station 21 - 1 Ladder Truck, 1 Ambulance. The station is staffed with 2 Paramedics but due to the shortage of Paramedics in DeKalb Fire Rescue one of the Paramedics is sent to fill in at other Stations. The ambulance at station 21 is always manned with a Paramedic.

Station 12 - 1 Fire Engine. The station is staffed with 1 Paramedic and is dynamic meaning that it can either have a Paramedic or not. If there's a Paramedic needed somewhere else the one from Station 12 can be moved out of Dunwoody.

I believe currently the stations in the City of Dunwoody 18,12,21 have only 2 Paramedics on duty that's 2 covering all of Dunwoody on the average. My concern is why are we being shorted Paramedics to staff DeKalb's other stations. This means if Station 18 is running a basic life support ambulance and they go on a cardiac arrest call the Engine and Ambulance are out of service, leaving us only 1 Paramedic to cover all of Dunwoody. I would like to see every piece of Fire Rescue Equipment have Advanced Life Support Capabilities or at least have a minimum of more than 2 Paramedics staffing Dunwoody."

Paula Caldarella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paula Caldarella said...

Rick had a good idea on his blog with regards to the effort to get more residents recycling - have we reached out to DeKalb County Sanitation and invited them to events around Dunwoody, i.e. Lemonade Days, the new Arts festival and so on?

The Sanitation dept. could provide educational materials, information and perhaps, have the bins and bags available for purchase at that time? Perhaps some people who would like to recycle, but don't take the time to call a number or fill out an internet form.

Bob Lundsten said...

We have just put 47 AEDs in the police cars in the city of Dunwoody. We need to instruct 911 to alert the Dunwoody PD when there is a call to report a cardiac arrest or Heart Attack.
That would require some protocol changes but i was told by the director of DeKalb EMS that it is possible.
This should be a focus of the council and DeKalb 911

Joe Hirsch said...

In the taxi cab TAX discussions, I never heard what Dunwoody would be inspecting on these taxis? Would it be the brakes, tires, seat belts, mufflers or sticking gas peddles? What city employee will be doing these inspections and where would this inspection take place? Wittenstein is correct: is this more government for safety or revenue? Heneghan noted the loophole on whether we are trying to regulate the car or the driver. And it was noted this won't really be enforced, but just sort of sometimes?!? We just hope some pay this fee/tax. This is pathetic. Don't pass anything that doesn't make sense or that isn't researched enough.