River's Edge Restaurant in Benedict up in flames
- Thread starter jazz lady
- Start date
OldHillcrestGuy
Well-Known Member
There are big plans in the works for what use to be the old Benedict Pier at the end of town, an investor from VA. $$$ has bought a ton of property and plans are for campsite's and marina's. Also a local person with lots of money has also bought up some properties in town with plans to renovate what he has bought.
I don't know how the locals down there are liking the plans and if they are anything like the Preserve Hughesville folks the place will stay a deserted town like Hughesville.
Well, looks like he just got the opportunity to increase his footprint along the waterfront.
Hank
my war
Yup. They just put up a sign...
GWguy
*
Does this include the Rivers Edge property?
If I were an insurance investigator, my spider senses would be tingling right about now.
Hessian
Well-Known Member
Could use a brief explanation:
day time
600 yards from the immensely modernized Fire Department...
And it burned to the ground.
Do the residents of Benedict have any thoughts regarding the response of the BVFD?
Is it a recruiting problem?...Not enough men in town during the day?
day time
600 yards from the immensely modernized Fire Department...
And it burned to the ground.
Do the residents of Benedict have any thoughts regarding the response of the BVFD?
Is it a recruiting problem?...Not enough men in town during the day?
littlelady
God bless the USA
Wow. I didn’t think about that. The FD is, basically, across the street. Really good thoughts/questions, Hessian.
Benedict did respond, I don't believe they were fully staffed. This was a wind driven fire in a wooden structure, the moment the flames made it up the siding into the parapet wall, the game was over.
The recruiting problem is that Benedict is a small community which these days is dominated by retirees and commuters. It is also a department that doesn't see many calls so unlike the busier stations in the county, you dont usually have an in-house crew sitting around to wait for the next call. Its just the nature of home-call type volunteer department that the initial response is going to be delayed vs having a career crew. The solution to that would be to hire a career crew for each station so the first unit can get out without delay. The downside of doing that would be without doubt the elimination of outlying stations with low call numbers. The response for the Benedict area would be from Hughesville.
I'll readily give you that Benedict (and some of the other smaller stations) have an outsized complement of vehicles and a rather palacial fire station. Part of that is the result of how county standards are written and how funding for buildings is allocated. It would like to refer anyone interested to the minutes of the Charles county board of fire and ems if they want to know how these things are governed and funded.
The easy answer for any citizen in the Benedict area who wants to see the situation improve is to come down to the station and pick up an application. The time comittment isn't bad, just a couple hundred hours for training until you have firefighter1, EMT, emergency vehicle operator and hazmat operations. Once you do that, feel free to complain about response times ;-)
Chris0nllyn
Well-Known Member
Yea, and no complaining about politicians/government until after you run for office.
What does your campaign poster look like?
Pretty much, certainly at the local government level. But that is just soo much harder than being 'the expert on everything' on the internet.
OldHillcrestGuy
Well-Known Member
Great response, I saw the post about the firehouse being around the corner, but couldn't respond at the time. The dispatch time for the call was about 16:37, somewhat a bad time for a volunteer station, especially one with a small membership. There was a time Benedict had a strong membership a lot of young members and several older people. Over the years the younger guys have married and moved away from the sleepy little town and unfortunately the older ones are pushing up daisies.
Benedict did get out, but only had 2 guys on the engine and it does take a few minutes to get everything set up to start hitting the fire with water. Being a very old building with lots of wood construction and the wind blowing like it was there wasn't much they could do. My understanding once the water started flowing from the engine, there concern was the large propane tank by the building so they flowed water on that to cool it. Hughesville go out immediately on dispatch, just so happened it was a day when there were a lot of career firefighters volunteering their time at the station, and it appeared that was the case with Prince Frederick also because they both pulled into Benedict within the same minute just behind a Chief from Hughesville and a Charles County deputy.
With those the 3 companies there, Hughesville being 2nd engine needed to set up a water supply from a hydrant I believe and Prince Frederick was there with their tower, they cant do anything without water. Whoever was the next arriving company they had one hell of a long trip to get there, it was either Mechcanicsville, Huntingtown or Baden. If it wasn't for the wind a lot of that building probably would have been saved. Reminded me about what happened in Solomons at Lighthouse.
Hessian
Well-Known Member
Thanks for those details...I could not find ANY clear explanation & that filled in the gaps. The truth is,...in a MUCH broader sense, We (as a nation) are fond of throwing money at problems...when what is needed is manpower, volunteerism, and loyalty. Organizations like the Elks, Moose, Optimists, Ruritan...are fading away. Volunteer fire companies like Benedict might have more volunteers...if the level of regulations wasn't so discouraging--and more people felt a community obligation. I can offer few solutions...maybe property tax cuts for members? Health care insurance? Levels of commitment offered?
Its a shame to have lost that restaurant...but it points to a larger problem in our society that has long relied on local organizations to meet needs.
Its a shame to have lost that restaurant...but it points to a larger problem in our society that has long relied on local organizations to meet needs.
In Charles county, we have two financial incentives to volunteering in the fire or EMS service. One is a program called LOSAP where you receive a small pension if you volunteer for 20 or 25 years (depends on age). The other is a state tax deduction that allows you to take $5000 off the income counted towards your MD income tax (with the maximal marginal tax rate in MD at 8.78%, in a best case scenario this tax credit is worth $436/year). To receive either incentive, fire/EMS companies have a minimum number of hours or calls/drills you have to attend in a given year. While there are some 'LOSAP warriors' in each company, the number of active members who do it for the modest financial incentive is probably small. Some of the younger members do it to gain experience in the fire service with the goal to become a career firefighter in one of the surrounding jurisdictions. Those who are past that point in their life do it because it is something they want to do.
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OldHillcrestGuy
Well-Known Member
Good post. I'm almost there, being a old guy, unfortunately in 4 months I hit 70 with 24 years I'm about to collect my LOSAP, not much but nice rainy day or peek a boo money, to maybe eat out more lol.
Its hard for people to volunteer with the fire depts. anymore young folks with families don't have the time for all the hours you have to put in going class to become a EMT or firefighter. The cadet programs that St. Mary's and Charles have not sure about Calvert, helps bring in some new young members. Of the members at my station there are very very few who are not career firefighters somewhere in the DMV.
Thanks for what you have put into it. Turning 70 isn't all that bad, it sure beats the alternative.
You can say: 'Honey, that week in July, you know the one around your sisters birthday, I was planning to be up in Garrett county for a technician course.' only so many times ;-)
And the numbers keep going up. Fire1 is now 108hrs, of which unfortunately a part is spent on 'death by powerpoint'. And there is simply no need to sit through those parts in a classroom rather than doing them online with a test at the end. Time for MFRI to catapult themselves into the 21st century. They had a 'hybrid' version of the EVO course, where the classroom stuff was online and you only needed two days for the driving evaluations. Apparently with an update on their computers, they lost the ability to do the online learning part and now its back to a classroom setting
.The cadet programs are good, but those kids sort of come and go. Not sure how much of a retention rate that program has on lets say a 5 year horizon. But at least we are building a population of folks with the credentials who can re-join down the line if their life circumstances allow. And those who go into it as a career tend to stick around on their off days to volunteer, which is what keeps the entire thing afloat.