Turkey Creek Advisory Board members Barb Griffith, township trustee, left, Sylvia Gargett, John Heckaman and Dennis Darr.

Turkey Creek Township Advisory Board Monday, Feb. 12, signed an application for construction designed release submitted by the architect for improvements to the fire territory’s two stations.

The application will be submitted for approval by the state “so we can begin acquiring bids for these improvements from interested bidders,” said Fire Chief Mickey Scott.

Township Trustee Barb Griffith presented her first monthly report of the calendar year. An “uneventful” January saw the following poor relief expenditures:

• $380 in rent

• $1,697.67 in utilities

• $373.92 in food

The township transferred $15,837.32 to the fire territory in January.

In his monthly report, Scott noted the department responded to 139 emergency calls in January, the highest monthly total since July 2015 and the second highest total in more than a decade.

Department personnel took a cumulative 395 hours of fire and EMS training on topics ranging from vehicle and equipment operations and inventory to SCBA drills to school bus emergencies and active shooter incidents.

Scott announced the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory will host several sessions to instruct municipalities and agencies how to improve their community’s ISO fire rating. Improved ratings result in lower resident and commercial insurance premiums.

The classes will be held Thursday, March 1, at the Kosciusko County Justice Building in Warsaw.

Individual sessions will be geared toward insurance agents; municipal administrators; emergency dispatch officials; fire department personnel; and building code and water utility officials.

The fire department will host an eight-hour disaster training exercise from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at the Syracuse Community Center, 1013 N. Long Drive. The free event is open to the public. Call (574) 457-6917 to reserve a seat.

University of Findlay All Hazards Training Center developed the training “to educate emergency responders on freight rail car incidents involving hazardous materials, specifically crude oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids.”

According to the informational literature, “it is important that the responder community becomes educated about the dangers and unique hazards presented with rail cars carrying these commodities.”

The course is designed to “enhance the ability of emergency responders to assess the scene of a rail car incident and understand the resources needed to remediate the emergency situation, including how the railroad will play a critical role in the response.”

Topics covered at the training include:

• Identification of the design, construction, components and marking of rail tank cars

• Identification of the chemicals being transported and their properties

• Assessment of the scene to determine potential hazards to people, property and the environment

• Recognition of mitigation strategies

• Identification of key rail and freight industry, governmental and private resources for response assistance

The board will next meet at 7 p.m. Monday, March 12, at Syracuse Town Hall.