Director's Dialogue June 2010

Sheriff Hoops won his election yesterday, defeating two others who had chosen to run against him for the position of Sheriff in San Bernardino County.  All of us are ecstatic that he won with nearly 67 percent of the votes cast. All of us are once again looking forward to working for and with him. Congratulations!  

The SAR Council has been approached by Volunteer Forces to ask all of our SAR personnel a couple of favors.  First, VF is now in the process of putting together a new handbook for all of our Coordinators and Unit Commanders. In this handbook they want to have a section called “Frequently Asked Questions”.  These questions will be asked and answered in this new book. They are asking that you send in a list of questions that you might think would or should be asked.  Send those to me at dnicolet@sbsar.org and I will make sure that VF receives them.

Volunteer Forces is looking at some items to see where they can cut some cost down during these economically tough times.  An item that they are looking at is the new BSAR books. They want us to ask you, that if you have a BSAR book that you are not using, and have no plans of using, it you wouldn’t mind donating it back to the SAR Council. If you would like to help out with this, give them to your Unit SAR Council Rep. and have them bring them to the next SAR Council Meeting on July 21, 2010.  VF and the IESARC thank you for your consideration on both of these matters.  

Sgt. Jeff Joling just called me from Volunteer Forces and wanted to tell me that they found some equipment that he wants to give to the SAR Council so that we can give it to each SAR unit. Come to the SAR Council Meeting in July and we will make sure that each unit receives this. You are going to appreciate it and it will assist you greatly in your individual CP’s when running your own missions. See you at SAR Council!

May was a busy month for our SAR units.  We had the mutual aid call out to Idyllwild, Central, Rim and the Cave Team responded and found the subject.  There have been four or five local call-outs for the members of San G and Valley of the Falls SAR units, all with good results.  Plus there was a call-out for the two teams from the Morongo Basin (Ground and Mounted) to look for a missing motorcyclist.  Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found.

The SBDO Dog Team also had their hands full using their cadaver dogs searching for a victim in our local dumps. Not a good job to have to do, for the handlers or the dogs, but all who were involved did an outstanding job.

West Valley SAR had a call-out or two, but we have not heard back about how those missions went. There was another mutual aid request to go back to Idyllwild that went out countywide, but before any of us deployed the subject was found. 

If you have any local call-outs, please let us know and we will mention it here in the Dialogue. If we missed anyone who had a call-out in May, we offer our apologies now.  Nice work by all of our units and their members during this past month!

As mentioned in last months DD, are you a member of Facebook?  Well if you are, come and join us on the “Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council” facebook group page.  We have started this page to have a place were we all can exchange photos, talk a little about SAR and hopefully have a little fun. It’s a private page just for our SAR personnel and all photos, discussions, posts etc are private to just those members who join.

If you are interested in joining this page go to www.facebook.com and in the Search Box type in: Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council.  The page should come up and it will ask if you want to send a request to become a member.  Your membership will than be approved by the administrators of this page.

Please do not think that this is to be used in-place of the official www.sbsar.org website…that is not the purpose.  This page is just for the sharing of ideas, talking about SAR and posting what is on your mind about SAR.  We hope that you join us.

Helitac Classes are now being scheduled; the SAR Council and Aviation are trying to come up with a couple of dates.  Hopefully, there will be a class in July and another in August that will be sponsored by the SAR Council. We will send out a memo to each unit as soon as those dates are known.

If your unit wants to set up their own private class, let me know and I will put you in touch with the right people at Aviation so that you can schedule this.

The Sheriff’s MudRun was attended by a lot of our SAR folks!  It was another great day for the department and the runners.

If you would like to see pictures and videos of the event go to the sbsar.org website.  Rim SAR posted a video and Danenne Evans from SB Mt. SAR took a ton of pictures for you to review.  They are also posted on the SAR Councils facebook group page.  I would also like to thank Rim SAR, again, for the …muddy group hug!

The Sheriffs Rodeo Ride and BBQ is coming up this Saturday, June12th.  It will be held at the Las Flores Ranch.  Admission for the ride and lunch is $25.00.  If you plan on attending please contact Ron Mead at:  760-964-4911

Remember that we are in Fire Season, have you correct gear and you vehicles stocked at all times, we never know when our services will be needed.  If you have the opportunity please review the materials that our Fire Preparedness Chairwomen Donna Newlin has distributed to your units the last couple of years.  Remember, safety knowledge and the proper equipment are a must to perform these duties.

As of right now the PR Trailer Committee is made of the following members:  Dan Fergot, Sandi Taylor, Jim Wilk, Frank Kams, Mike Ward, Ron Pesch and myself.  We need some other interested members to participate.  Our goal is to have this trailer finished by December of this year.  If you would like to lend a hand please contact me.

I will be seeing and/or talking to you soon……….please until then…Be Safe



Dave Nicolet, Director
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
dnicolet@sbsar.org
760-363-7475
760-831-5743