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Richmond Hill Receives Favorable ISO Rating of Four for Fire-Protection Services
RichmondHillFireStation
The Richmond Hill Fire Station on Ford Avenue that was recently renovated.
Special to the News
Bryan County News
Updated: Jul 10, 2014, 2:37 PM
Published: Jul 10, 2014, 2:53 PM

Richmond Hill recently received an Insurance Services Office rating of 4 for its fire-protection services for the city.

Based on an objective standard, ISO evaluates public fire-protection services in communities nationwide and rates them on a scale of one to 10, according to the press release from the City of Richmond Hill. A rating of one signifies superiority in fire protection and a score of 10 indicates that the program does not meet ISO’s quality standards.

According to the press release, this rating is then used by fire insurance companies to set premiums for residential and commercial properties in each city; the lower the rating is, the lower the insurance rates are for the community. 

“We are extremely pleased with the current ISO rating,” said Richmond Hill Fire Chief Ralph Catlett. “As with anything, there is always room for improvement and in the future we hope to have the lowest possible rating for the citizens of Richmond Hill.”

Only 5,000 fire departments in the country currently have a rating of four, according to Catlett.

This, he said, is a strong rating that can be utilized for future planning and budgeting for fire facilities, water systems, equipment and response services. 

“Considering the audit was conducted when we were between fire chiefs and before completion of the old fire station’s renovations, earning an ISO rating of four is a true testament to the fantastic job our staff did during this time of transition,” said Richmond Hill Mayor Harold Fowler. “I feel confident that within the next couple of years, we’ll be able to lower the rating to a three, thereby lowering fire insurance rates.”

Pembroke also has an ISO rating of 4 and the county has a rating of 5.                                                                                          

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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