BAMSAR MINUTES
Minutes of the January, 2005, BAMSAR meeting, held at Mastic Beach. Thanks to Chief Bill Biondi and MBFD Dive Team for their hospitality.
Present: Bellport, Brookhaven, Mastic Beach, Center Moriches. John Spates, Mount Sinai Fire Department, was our guest.
Excused: None.
Old Business:
Discussed the December Executive meeting minutes:
* DRI account and FASNY account were discussed.
* Current diving equipment cost was discussed. Total for all the equipment needed would be about $4K. We’d need to come up with a list of our needs, prioritize which gets purchased first, and where it will be cached for ready use. A suggestion was made to have each District/Department possibly buy one piece of equipment each, or, provide funding for a piece of equipment. BAMSAR would also get smaller items, as far as our funds will allow. Grants could be another source of funding.
* A training plan needs to be developed for 2005. Already, we have, in place, the dates for the DR 1 basic course (20, 21 & 22 May), and a tentative date (Columbus Day weekend, 8-10 October) for the current diving specialty course. A confined space/entanglement course may come later. One or two multi-department training drills will be needed this year for staying proficient in current diving, as well as a couple multi-department drills for the basic DR 1 skills. (Discussions led to a recommendation that each current diver would need to make at least one current diving drill per year to be considered proficient in that specialty.) Mastic Beach is working on a surface swimmer class, and a surf entry class. A hypothermia class will be scheduled.
* All of us, especially the officers of the organization, will need to go out and “sell” the organization to the public, politicians, civic leaders, FRES, our own, and neighboring departments, and specialty outfits such as the North Brookhaven Technical Rescue Team.
* We will ask for inclusion in the North Brookhaven Team, for when they have water rescues, and need additional resources. (John and Jim V. have had some preliminary discussions with a representative of the Wading River Chiefs, for possible inclusion in their preplans for the proposed Broadwater LNG Platform.)
* We need to develop some sort of accountability card that identifies us and our qualifications.
* Committees will need to be appointed to carry out all of the above objectives.
New Business:
Welcome to our guest, John Spates, Mount Sinai Fire Department. His team is interested in working and training with us. We look forward to training with Mount Sinai, and gave him a bit of background on what we do.
Brookhaven Fire Department team is now back in service, after a year of rebuilding. Welcome back.
Fire Academy has the use of the Suffolk Community College pool, on the Brentwood Campus (Wicks Road, south of the L.I.E.) on weekends. Contact Ray Kiesel to set up times. The County Voc. Board will have a sign-in sheet, just like at Yaphank.
Preplanning tabletop sessions were again discussed; more to follow.
Bill Biondi recommended that, as part of Boating Safety Week (in May), we go to the local marinas, hand out boating safety literature, and give the local boaters some safety pointers. John will contact Power Squadron to see if they can assist us in any way.
Bill Biondi has been tasked by Brookhaven Chiefs Council with coming up with a matrix of all of the water rescue resources in the Town. Please give him any information that he may need, that pertains to your water rescue team. Bill’s e-mail is Bondo401@optonline.net. John also needs updates on any new equipment you may have, or any changes to your equipment or team. John maintains the BAMSAR Master List, from which we update the Coast Guard, FRES, and each other. John’s e-mail is o_foghladha@yahoo.com.
Elections were held, and the following officers were re-elected:
President: Tim Dahlen
Vice President: Bill Biondi
Secretary: John Foley
Training:
Brookhaven Lab: Equipment checkout. 27 February, pending the receipt of a certificate of insurance.
All other training, please see “Old Business” above.
Next meeting: Thursday, 10 February, 2005, at 1930, at Brookhaven FD.
February 10th Brookhaven
March 10th Coast Guard Group Moriches
April 14th Center Moriches
May 12th Hampton Dive Center, Riverhead
June 09th Bellport
July 14th South Country
August 11th Patchogue
September 08th Eastport
October 13th Bayport
November 10th Mastic
No December Meeting
Any corrections, additions, or questions; please contact the Secretary.
Respectfully,
John Foley