Kentland Chief Says He is Working on New Plan, Under New Deadline

STATter 911 has learned that Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Lawrence Sedgwick has rejected a plan by the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department to set up a career-staffed EMS station on Kentland’s property.

Sources familiar with the dispute tell STATter 911, that Chief Sedgwick informed Kentland Acting Chief Tony Kelleher, that the plan presented on Friday is not acceptable. Specifically, according to the sources, the plan does not meet Chief Sedgwick’s requirements that an ambulance be housed inside the current firehouse and operated by volunteers. The sources we are talking with are very familiar with the dispute, but are not authorized to speak for their agencies.

Chief Kelleher contacted STATter 911 tonight, by email, saying he doesn’t believe his plan has been rejected. He is concerned we are getting “bogus information”. Instead, Kelleher wrote, he has been directed by Chief Sedgwick to come up with, “another plan IN ADDITION TO my existing one”.

Chief Kelleher provided us an excerpt from a letter he says Chief Sedgwick sent him on Friday afternoon. The letter confirms what STATter 911 reported earlier today: The new deadline is this Thursday, May 24th.

While Tony Kelleher says he is unable to share the entire letter with us, he says it does not include a threat that he will be suspended.

Last week, Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department spokesman Mark Brady said that if Acting Chief Kelleher did not follow Chief Sedgwick’s orders about the ambulance, Kelleher would be removed from the chain of command. Chief Sedgwick took that very action last Monday against Kentland Chief Michael Mattison.

Here is the part of Chief Sedgwick’s letter that Chief Kelleher shared with STATter 911:

Essentially your proposed plan requires Prince George’s County to rent land from Kentland Volunteer Fire Department for a “temporary style office/living quarters” and storage of a Basic Life Support (BLS) transport unit. Additionally, your proposed plan requires that the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, “…shall allocate a total of eight career personnel trained to the level of Emergency Medical Technician-B for the placing of a BLS unit in service from the constructed Greater Landover EMS Station.” Certainly, implementing the proposed plan places additional financial responsibility on the County. I propose that the most effective and financially prudent manner in which to implement this plan is for you to review and consider your current resources, including but not limited to, utilizing volunteer members to meet staffing needs and storing the BLS unit in the existing facility. I am directing that you provide me with a comprehensive plan which includes the above recommendations no later than May 24th, 2007.

In his email, Chief Kelleher characterized the current situation this way: “I would like to say that I am glad the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department and its command staff is putting forth some cooperative effort”.

The only official comment from Prince George’s County comes from a spokesman for Chief Sedgwick. According to Major Chauncey Bowers, “Chief Sedgwick continues to work with the leadership of Kentland to reach the goal of providing ambulance service at Station 33”.

A community meeting to discuss the Kentland situation is scheduled for Wednesday night, at 7:00 p.m., at Kenmoor Middle School. Chief Kelleher says he plans to attend the meeting.