Good Evening All:
It's been a while since I've been able to provide an update on the status of what's going on with the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department and the career personnel assigned to our station. As most know, there was a report of potential health and/or safety hazards at our station 31. In response to this, Chief Green ordered an assessment of our station which was completed in early March. We were told that we would receive the printed report approximately 6 weeks after it was completed so that we could determine what if anything needed to be immediately addressed for the health and/or safety of personnel assigned to our station, both career and volunteer. Because we had not received a copy of the assessment and in order to not enter into an agreement blindly, our leadership has not signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the county regarding the placement of temporary housing trailers on our property while proposed work may have to be completed.

On May 1, 2024 I received an email from the Fire Chief's Office stating that the assessment report was received on April 26, 2024. Since April 26th, a meeting was held with employees of the county to discuss the assessment report. Nobody from the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department was invited to participate in this meeting. Additionally, both the Attorney to the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department and Margie Dickey, President of the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department have requested to be able to see a copy of the assessment since, after all, it is property owned by the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department, Inc that was assessed. At the time of this update, we still have not received a copy of the report nor have we received any communication from the office of the Fire Chief to requesting a meeting to review and discuss the assessment. As soon as the County decides that we are entitled to see a report regarding our own station, we will post another update.