Director's Dialogue April 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 20:03 Dave Nicolet As most of you know Bill Fertig last month lost his son Sean and that Bill, due to unknown health issues, was admitted and still is in the hospital. The SAR Council, Volunteer Forces and the Department has requested that if you and/or your unit would like to send cards and/or a donation please do so by sending them to:
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
Attn: Sheriff’s Employees Assistance Team – Bill Fertig
655 East Third Street
San Bernardino, Calif. 92415-0061
If you enclose a donation with your card please make the check payable to: SEAT (Sheriff’s Employee Assistance Team). On the memo line on the check please print Bill Fertig. All funds will be used to assist Bill with his medical and funeral expenses.
On behalf of all of our SAR Personnel, Volunteer Forces and the Sheriff’s Department we all wish Bill a speedy recovery. We would also like to offer our condolences to Bill in regards to the loss of his son.
Sean Fertig’s memorial service will be this Monday, April 12th. at 1 p.m. The address of where the service is going to be held is:
Victor Valley Mortuary
15609 11th St.
Victorville, Calif. 92392
760-245-8764
The Board of Directors of the SAR Council is very excited about the remaining portion of this year. Thanks to Lt. Paterson’s new open door policy at Volunteer Forces we have been able to sit down with him and discuss many issues that we felt needed to be brought to his attention.
The members of the SAR Council Board of Directors have known that you and your units have had some concerns about various issues in the past. We also understand that you have made some very good suggestions and for one reason or the other they have not been discussed much less implemented.
The SAR Council by listening and hearing your request has been able to pass this information along to the new Lt. As Lt. Paterson said at the Council meeting, “not everything can be changed, but all request will be viewed and considered. It won’t happen overnight, but I can assure you that the staff at Volunteer Forces and I will look into these important topics”.
Lt. Paterson has instructed the SAR Council to help him identify the units needs and desires and has requested that we pass along to him all information that is needed to make sure that your SAR Units are being heard. He has also agreed to lend support to the SAR Council to implement programs etc that will benefit the SAR Units in the short term and long term. This in-turn will allow the SAR Council to be more of assistance to the units in the future. All of us are excited about this working relationship, which will allow the SAR Council to perform its main and original function…. Be the voice and support mechanism of our SAR Units!
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Some of the areas that Volunteer Forces and the SAR Council are now looking into, to just name a few are: the possibilities of a new standardized Call-out System, receving the final approval for our long over due BSAR Patchs, implementing a countywide ICS Response Team, having Walt Peterson added to the Civilian Volunteer Memorial, SAR Vehicle replacements and maintenance and hosting two Helitac Trainings during the remainder of the year. Again, just to name a few. Will all of these be implemented, approved and/or changed? We have no ideas, however they are being considered and reviewed. We will keep you posted!
The other good new is that the SAR Council has been successful in securing some funding to purchase equipment for our SAR Units. The funds are limited and at this time we do not have an exact amount, however we are asking that your units name one or two safety type pieces of equipment that they might need. Please by April 30th email me and let me know what your unit may be considering. We will then determine if we have enough funds to try and purchase these item(s) that have been most requested for by the units. April 30th is the deadline!
The Department, Volunteer Forces and the Council have a number of events coming up in the very near future. We have been asked to pass this information along to the you and your units as follows:
The 5th Annual MSAR Countywide Training – Hosted by the West Valley Posse. Sunday, April 18th at the Sheriff’s Rodeo Grounds. Sign-ins start at 8 a.m. with training starting at 9. Please send your registration forms to the MSAR Committee Chairman Hap Hatch ASAP. Forms are on the sbsar.org website.
Sheriff’s Volunteer Appreciation Picnic – Saturday, May 1st from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring your Sheriff’s I.D., lawn chairs and appetites. This event will be at the Glen Helen Regional Park, 2555 Glen Helen Parkway, San Bernardino. Please RSVP with our Coordinators and Commanders.
1st Annual AC Byers Trail Ride – Hosted by the Sheriff’s Rangers Sunday, May 2nd. Trail ride begins at 10 a.m. and the BBQ will be at 1:00 p.m. $20.00 per person. Sheriff Hoops and Jack Betterley will be the Trail Bosses. Call Blake Brinkerhoff at 760-954-4151 or Jim Wagoner 951-314-1144 for information and reservations.
2010 Sheriff’s Mudrun – Saturday, May 22nd from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers needed to conduct this event. Please contact Det. Matt Yost myoust@sbcsd.org or Dep. Marion Browne at mbrowne@sbcsd.org if you are wishing to assist with this very fun event.
TRBC – Contact Dan Whitten about this training. It will be held on the weekends of April 9, 10 and 11 and April 23, 24 and 25. dwhitten@sbsar.org
Volunteer Forces has asked us to remind you that they need all of you to get signed up on the www.sbsar.org website with your new SAR email addresses. If you do not have the needed information to accomplish this please get a hold of Jeff Lehman or Dan Whitten. Jeff’s email address is jlehman@sbsar.org
All members of our SAR Community would also like to wish Chuck Rader one of our BSAR Academy instructors a speedy recovery. Chuck just went through open-heart surgery and is home. We all wish him the best and look forward to seeing him at the next BSAR in September and October of this year!
Thanks again for all of your efforts this past month…remember; “We are all members of our individual SAR Units, but we all belong to one big SAR Team”.
The next SAR Council Meeting will be on May 19th. Until then…
Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
San Bernardino County Sheriff Department’s
Inland Empire Search and Rescue Council
dnicolet@sbsar.org
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