City of Oak Creek

Common Council Report

Meeting Date:  3/1/05

Item No.:         1

Recommendation:  That the Common Council accept and acknowledge the Oak Creek Lion’s Club for donating $1,500 to the Fire Department to help fund the Fire Department’s car seat safety program.

Background:  Approximately 4 out of every 5 child car safety seats are installed incorrectly.  These installation errors are grave enough to cause injury or death to children in an otherwise survivable crash.  If used correctly, child safety seats are 71% effective in reducing deaths for infants in passenger cars and are 54% effective in reducing deaths for children ages 1 to 4.

Due to these statistics many Oak Creek residents have requested this service, and they typically look to fire or police stations for assistance in this area.  In June of 2004 Fire Secretary Anna Kelly and Firefighter Scott Kasten received training and became certified as Child Passenger Safety Technicians.  Since the program began they have been very busy keeping up with the requests for installation and safety checks.

Due to budget constraints we requested the Oak Creek Lion’s Club to consider donating funds to help support this program.  It is our plan to use the donated money to send two additional personnel for training and to purchase needed supplies that we need to run a successful program.

As they have so many times in the past, the Oak Creek Lion’s Club has granted our request and made this expansion possible.

Fiscal Impact:  Costs related to the Car Seat Program will be funded out of the Fire Department Donation account and if needed the public education account in the Fire Department’s line item budget.  The total in that account for all public education is $3,000.  In 2004 supply costs to maintain the program were $200.  Most of the safety checks are done on duty.

Prepared by: Gerard R. Hammernik Fire Chief	Respectfully submitted, Barbara S. Blumenfield, Ph.D City Administrator
Fiscal Review by: Beverly A. Buretta, CMC City Clerk