Phone: 615-387-6084 | Fax: 615-799-1383 | Email: [email protected]
August 27, 2015
Last Sunday, August 23, 2015 our Fire Department was observed removing signs from a private building in the Publix shopping center. Some of our citizens expressed concern about the activity being on private property and the potential of the activity being for private gain.
In addition to their department wide sponsored training, each shift conducts training on a smaller scale for the benefit of their volunteer members. Quite often this training is conducted either on private property or at the schools in lieu of the fire hall in order to provide a more realistic setting. Sunday’s training was approved in advance by the City Manager and the Management of the shopping center and was designed to improve the dexterity of the firefighters while utilizing the new ladder truck.
The signs in question were purchased at a private auction by one of the Fairview Firefighters with the intention of donating the signs to the city to be sold in an effort to supplement budgetary restrictions in the training program. At no time were the firefighters involved at risk or unprepared to terminate the training in order to respond to an incident if needed.
The Board of Commissioners, the City Manager and the City Attorney met on the situation and have determined that no violation of city or state rules occurred however they also concluded the City could have done a better job in publicizing the training so as to not leave a false impression about what was occurring. Steps are being implemented by the City Manager and all the Department Heads to implement a system for letting the public know of the situations in the future.
Additional details regarding the benefits of this exercise and details of the training will be forthcoming to the city website. These details will be completed by the crew who removed the signs on their next shift.
Wayne Hall
City Manager
