The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A2

A2 MARYLAND GAZETTE Wednesday, October 8, 2014 www.capitalgazette.com Volunteer firefighters jump by 15 BY JOSHUA MCKERROWSTAFF Lt. Erika Nesvold of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Department is one of a growing number of volunteer firefighters across Anne Arundel County. Fire service attracts wide array of volunteers By Ben Weathers bweatherscapgaznews.com Erika Nesvold's favorite call was about five years ago, when the Odenton volunteer firefighter delivered a baby in the passenger seat of a rninivan. The minivan was still sitting in the driveway of a home at the time, she said. The now 27-year-old remembers her male counterparts waiting at the end of the driveway and telling her to let them know if she needed any help.

Nesvold acknowledges that it was the adrenaline that initially drove her to volunteer, but it's her friendships that have driven her to stay. "The camaraderie that you hear about, it keeps me coming back," she said. Nesvold is one of a growing number of volunteer firefighters in Anne Arundel County. The number of volunteers increased more than 16 percent over the past four years. In 2010, there were about 680 volunteer firefighters at nearly two dozen volunteer fire companies throughout the county.

As of September, there were around 790 volunteers an increase of 16.2 percent, according to statistics provided by the county fire department. The Odenton fire station enjoys the county's largest volunteer base, with some 120. The company had around 100 in 2010, according to fire department statistics. The company's vice president, Wylie Donaldson, 76, said the strong volunteer base is the result of word-of-mouth rather grandparents that are involved with the fire service." The Rivieria Beach company's active membership has remained relatively steady at around 70 over the past five years. Many come to the volunteer service as a way to transition into career fcefighting, Spiker said.

"They can get an education and training and then get a career or profession out of it," Spiker said. However, many volunteers, like Nesvold, have further aspirations. Nesvold, is a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she studies astrophysics. She spends much of her time conducting research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, and she hopes to graduate next spring. She still manages to find one day each weekend to ride ambulances and firetrucks in Odenton.

"I never get tired of running calls," she said. "It's always something new when you go out the door." A number of volunteers at the Odenton department have advanced college degrees, Donaldson said. "It boggles my mind that a person in that arena, if you will, spends all their time at the volunteer firehouse," Donaldson said. Many volunteers already have lucrative careers and aren't looking to make the jump to career fcefighting, Cox said. "There's professionals, there's business owners, government employees," Cox said.

"They have a good job already, but they want to come out and serve their community" www.twitter.comBenW-TheCapital than any specific recruitment effort "People hear about us and they want to join and when they join they become hooked," Donaldson said. Donaldson joined the department in 1952, when the required age to be a volunteer was 14. In those days, the younger volunteers were allowed to ride the brush fire truck in what was then a largely rural community, Donaldson said. County Fire Chief Michael Cox called the increase "very significant." Cox began his fire service career as a volunteer at the age 16 at the Woodland Beach Fire Department. "For us to have a more active volunteer base means that we get an increase in services to our citizens and the community," Cox said.

More than 70 percent of the county's volunteers are eligible to ride fire trucks and ambulances. Volunteers are required to complete ongoing training each year; those who don't finish all the training within the year become ineligible until it's completed, fire department spokesman Russ Davies said. There are some 850 paid firefighters in the county fire department, Davies said. John Spiker, 66, a volunteer with the Riviera Beach Volunteer Company 13, said the increase in contrary to the trends of years past. Over the decades, the numbers of volunteers has largely decreased.

"It relates back to if it's part of the family if you're bred into it," Spiker said. "A lot of people that come in have mothers, fathers, Hospitals respond to Ebola scare By Shantee Woodards swoodardscapgaznews.com Signs around the Glen Burnie hospital asks visitors if they've been to Africa recently and whether they feel feverish. In Annapolis, hospital officials look for flu-like symptoms. They're isolating any patients who might have traveled to an area of heightened interest such as West Africa These precautions are in response to Ebola, a virus that reached the United States in recent weeks. While an American, Thomas Eric Duncan, who contracted the virus reportedly remained in critical condition at a Dallas hospital, area hospital officials said they want to be prepared if it comes to Anne Arundel.

"It's all about public safety, early recognition and treatment of patients," said nurse Carol Ann Sperry, the director of the emergency department at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center. "It's a horrible disease and certainly devastating to Africa, but I think it can be controlled with the plans we have in place." The Ebola virus is spread through blood or bodily fluids, infected animals and objects, such as needles and syringes, that have been contaminated. Symptoms, which can appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure, include fever, headache, muscle pain and unexplained hemorrhaging. There is no approved vaccine for Ebola, but it can be treated by providing fluids, maintaining oxygen status and treating infections as they occur, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States' first confirmed Ebola case came Sept.

30 from Duncan, who traveled to Dallas from West Africa The CDC has since issued a Warning Level 3 notice to avoid nonessential travel in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as well as an alert advising enhanced precautions for those traveling to Nigeria Another American with Ebola arrived in the United States on Monday Ashoka COURTESY PHOTO At a recent emergency preparedness fair held at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Mark Page and Jessica Campbell, from AAMC's emergency department, assist Will Younkin, from AAMC's biomedical engineering department, don protective gear. Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who was working in Liberia. At Anne Arundel Medical Center, staff is following the same procedures they use for other infectious diseases that come from overseas, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) from Asia and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Saudi Arabia Any sick person who has been to a country with a disease outbreak will be referred to the infectious control staff and isolated. 'We are resource-rich and not resource-poor," said Dr. Mary Clance, epidemiologist at AAMC.

"There's not a hospital in the United States that has an ICU and good infection control program that can't handle an Ebola case. Any good hospital can do this." In August, BWMC began putting up signs asking about international travel and illness. Now, patients are also asked in three areas the emergency department, admitting office and obstetricsgynecology whether they've traveled outside the country and whether they have any flu-like symptoms. Patients identified as having been to an infected area who are feeling ill will be asked to put on a mask, and a hospital employee will assist them. If Ebola is diagnosed, the patient will be placed in a private room with dedicated equipment and staff.

Sperry, of BWMC, said she is more concerned about influenza than she is about Ebola "Influenza is contagious 24 hours before you have symptoms. Ebola is not contagious until after symptoms develop," Sperry said. Still, the virus does come with a bit of the unknown. 'We really don't know what the mortality rate will be in the United States or in industrialized nations. We have state-of-the-art care," she said, "so hopefully that will allow the person to recover." Council delays cameras, ambulance bills County Council defeated a bill Monday to reform community taxing districts By Tim Prudente tprudentecapgaznews.com John Grasso wanted to ban red-light cameras.

Instead, the County Council chairman saw his bill amended Monday to potentially bring an additional red-light camera to Anne Arundel County. The bill was amended and delayed for further action until Oct. 20. It was among legislation considered Monday during a five-hour meeting of the County Council, which also delayed action on raising ambulance fees paid by insurance companies. Grasso, R-Glen Burnie, introduced his bill last month to ban red-light cameras.

Five cameras are installed at intersections in the county, but only four are working "It seems like a bounty system," Grasso said, "another way to take money out of taxpayers' pockets." But Maj. David Waltemeyer of the Anne Arundel County Police Department told the council the cameras serve as a deterrents. 'When people see those intersections," he said, "they do slow down. They do stop." Benefit districts The council also disagreed on a bill to reform Special Community Benefit Districts. These districts allow neighbors to levy taxes for work in their community, such as rebuilding shorelines and plowing private streets.

Dozens of these districts operate in the county, including in Crofton and Gibson Island. Currently, the code requires at least 51 percent of property owners to agree for a district to form. Organizers must gather signatures from these property owners. The signatures are vetted by county officials. The office of County Executive Laura Neuman introduced a bill through Grasso to increase this threshold to 75 percent.

Councilmen said that would prove an impossible hurdle. "That (51 percent) is a fairly high bar already," said Councilman Chris Trum-bauer, -Annapolis. "Fifty-one percent is the majority who are we to tell a majority they can't do something?" Ladd and Grasso voted to amend the bill to require a 66 percent majority. But the four other councilmen in attendance voted against the amendment The bill was raised for a vote. All six councilmen voted against it The council meets next on Oct.

20; after that, it will not meet again until after the election Nov. 4. The working cameras three on Route 2 and one on Riva Road have generated more than $560,000 during each of the last two fiscal years. About $210,000 goes to the vendor, American Traffic Solutions Inc. of Tempe, Arizona The rest about $360,000 goes to the general fund.

'We don't issue (tickets) to gain revenue," Waltemeyer said. 'We hope that penalty prevents them from doing it again." Grasso wanted to ban the cameras; the council did not Daryl Jones, D-Severn, amended the bill to limit cameras to no more than five. That amendment passed. Grasso voted for it as a compromise, but he acknowledged that this amended bill, if approved, could open the door for the fifth camera to operate again. It's located at Route 3 and Evergreen Road, north of Crofton.

"This is the complete opposite of what my bill is expected to do," Grasso said. Ambulance fees The amended bill will be considered during the next council meeting, along with legislation to raise fees the county may charge to insurance companies for providing ambulance rides to patients. A vote on this bill was delayed after disagreement about the amount of money it would raise. The bill would raise fees for basic and advanced life support transportation from $500 to $700, and for a second type of advanced life support from $500 to $750. It would also start charging for mileage.

These fees are not charged to county residents. Instead, the county employs a system called "soft billing." If a county resident with insurance is taken to the hospital by ambulance, the fee is charged to that patient's insurance company. Different insurance providers set limits on the amount paid per ambulance ride. If payments do not cover the entire fee, the county, under "soft billing," will not charge the difference to the patient. Out-of-county patients are sent bills, but some never pay.

Similarly, those without insurance may pay nothing. So it's unclear how much more money would be generated by increasing the fees, said Teresa Sutherland, county auditor. "If you pass this bill, it will have a positive fiscal impact," she said. "But I'm unable to project whether that positive fiscal impact is $50,000 or $L5 million." A majority of the council voted to wait until Oct. 20, so the numbers could be researched.

Councilmen Jones and Dick Ladd, R-Severna Park, voted against waiting. Councilman Jamie Benoit, D-Crownsville, was absent from Monday's meeting..