Fireside Chat

The summer is ending, and fall is around the corner. Soon we will be celebrating the holidays with our families, friends and loved ones. Enjoy the love, laughter, tears and warmth that this time can bring you.

Public
We are an incredible community filled with diverse thoughts and ways of doing things. Still, that never disrupts our ability to give and take care of each other. Over the years, I have witnessed mortal enemies come together for each other in a time of need.

We all have a fixed amount of time in this life, some more, some less; with all of it, most of us conclude that caring, being nice, laughing, loving and giving brings us the most interpersonal freedom. In my career, I see a lot of death and have the duty to say goodbye (especially in this community) to a friend whose time has come and support the family in their grief. Spend time with family, friends and loved ones sharing your life and say what you need to say, before there is no time left.

This community is the amalgamation of all our numerous definitions, and I want to thank you for helping me make Point Roberts my home. I am still looking to start a support group for anyone dealing with cancer or other medical conditions, providing them an opportunity to tell their story, experience and exchange support, and understand they need not navigate that journey alone. If you have interest in being a part of this, please email me.

Our annual haunted house is coming up on Saturday, October 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. We will have a brand-new maze this year to surely provide more screams. If you would like to make treats and/or be a goblin, please email me.

Service

We continue to increase our outreach program with the Welcome Home project, bringing people home from the hospital when needed. Also, when someone is not able to be taken to the ER by a personal vehicle and needs ambulance transport to the ER due to the nature of their emergency, we no longer bill for transports. This was approved in January to help relieve financial worry some had for this service. If by chance we must transfer to a higher level of care or to another agency to complete the trip to the ER, that organization or agency has the full right to bill you as normal. This could include Airlift Northwest, Life Flight, County Medic or Aid unit and others. We will always do our best to take you all the way to the hospital but staffing or level of care needed may dictate otherwise.

Great news!

The district was awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) through FEMA to purchase new portable radios that will be used by your firefighters during agency operations and emergency incidents. The district will receive $229,733.60 of the awarded $241,220.28 to help with the purchase of 24 radios. As part of the grant, we are responsible for just over $11,000.00 as non-federal sharing. We will still need to use some capital funds to purchase additional accessories, mobile radios (radios in vehicles) and additional items above what the grant is covering. We will continue to try for a new ambulance in this next round of applications starting in the coming weeks.

I had a great time discussing local conditions and response for Tsunamis (Earthquake) and Wildfire at the recent Point Roberts Emergency Preparedness (PREP) meeting with community members. There are applications for your mobile device to be alerted for earthquakes and other emergencies and the FEMA website along with Whatcom County provide good direction on how to prepare for such disasters. I am working closely with our local and federal partners for these types of emergencies so this community can overcome any difficulties resulting from such an event as quickly as possible. We will be offering another Certified Emergency Response Team (CERT) course next year, hopefully before summer. We can always use more disaster-trained community members so keep your eyes open for the announcement.

Safety tips

As the colder months arrive, please visit nfpa.org/Public-Education for safety information on heating your homes, Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarms (free from your fire department) and other safety items. Do what you can to be self-efficient for at least two weeks and have a bag ready to go with essential items if you need to leave quickly.

Reminder

 If you are using a cell phone here in Point Roberts, please consider calling 360/676-6911 to reach “911”. Continue to dial 911 from a landline. The reason for cell phone consideration is that a person trying to make a 911 call within our community may be attached to a cell provider in Canada and thus be routed to Canada’s emergency system.