Jefferson County Emergency Services Agency EMS/Fire Strategic Plan

The Challenge
The Jefferson County Emergency Services Agency (JCESA) serves as a combined joint emergency services agency having the powers afforded to both a fire board and an emergency ambulance authority as authorized under the West Virginia Code. In addition to overseeing the County’s fire suppression and emergency medical services (EMS), the JCESA is also responsible for establishing funding priorities among its seven fire companies and administering annual funding appropriations and allocations. The JCESA faces ever-increasing challenges in its service delivery capabilities. Such challenges are centered on the recruitment and retention of qualified volunteers and the extreme financial burdens associated with maintaining and operating fire and EMS services.

The JCESA required a strategic plan that would provide solutions to sustain and strengthen the County’s volunteer fire and EMS services by retaining and deploying qualified career staff to augment the County’s volunteer fire and EMS services; establishing and communicating the priority facility, apparatus, and equipment needs of the County’s seven fire companies; and securing the local, county, state, and federal financial resources necessary to achieve its organizational goals and objectives

Delta provided the technical assistance necessary for JCESA to prepare its five-year strategic plan, developing a blueprint to ensure that the necessary staffing and financial capacity needs will be met. During a three-month strategic planning process, Delta conducted quantitative and special data collection and analyses, document reviews, and stakeholder interviews with the County Commission, JCESA, all seven fire companies, and select county departments, including the Department of Capital Planning and Management, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Planning Department.

The Result
With Delta’s assistance, the JCESA completed its five-year strategic plan in January 2011, providing a necessary tool for establishing clear growth objectives and an executable road map for the future. Having undertaken a thorough analysis of its operations, the JCESA is better equipped to address its short- and long-term needs, concerns, and issues as it continues to serve its member communities. The creation of the plan ensures that the JCESA will continue to provide, in the words of its vision statement, “the timely and efficient delivery of emergency medical, fire, and rescue services to the citizens of Jefferson County.