Greencastle Fire Department embarks on new initiatives

When he became fire chief last year, Rob Frank said he was bringing a desire for learning and training to the office with him, as well as a passion for moving the department forward. 

That has been accomplished in several ways during his tenure, but two initiatives recently cemented what the veteran firefighter had set out to accomplish. 

The Greencastle Fire Department has embarked on a core values project, as well as a new work performance evaluation. 

"I believe that all great organizations rely on a solid set of core values. THey say this is who we are and how we will operate. They also fill in the gaps when there aren't policies or procedures for certain issues that may arise. Core values has been on my to do list since becoming the fire chief. I had spoken to a couple of different people about facilitating the project and landed on Zach Matthews with Experienced Solutions LLC. Zach has taught classes at the department previously, so we had a good working relationship and he agreed to take on the project," Frank told The Putnam County Post.

Frank said his department formed a core values committee consisting of Captain Brian Poole and firefighters James Shaw, Grant Bryan and Cassie Baldwin. 

"They received training from Zach on what strong core values are and how they would go about surveying the department for us to develop ours. Then surveys were sent out to all department members asking them to give feedback on what they felt like the core values should be and how to define them," Frank explained.

Frank said when the surveys were collected, the committee narrowed the values down to three -- honor, accountability and passion. 

When it comes to passion, Frank said the department will serve with integrity and act with unwavering commitment to ethical conduct, fostering trust through selfless service. For accountability, the department will take personal and collective responsibility for their actions and decisions to ensure the safety of the community while actively supporting the growth and performance of its members. And for compassion, Frank said the department will understand and support individuals, community partners and fellow employees with respect and empathy.  

Frank said nothing has changed with the work performance evaluation yet. However, the department brought on Darrell Mendenhall, who is a private consultant that works with area fire departments to validate work performance evaluations. 

"Darrell’s job is to work with a committee made up of department members to make sure that everything with our WPE is in alignment. Basically making sure that our WPE is in correlation with our job descriptions and actual tasks that are being performed during emergencies. There could be some changes to the actual stations but once the committee comes to an agreement everyone will take the WPE to establish a department wide time standard. Once the WPE is set and there is an established time standard everyone will have ample time to prepare for it before we go live with it, which will be sometime in 2026. Once it is live all department members will have to complete the WPE annually and meet the established time standard," Frank said.

Frank said firefighting is a physically demanding job, and as a result, his firefighters need to be ready to respond at a moment's notice.

"Our citizens deserve firefighters who are physically fit and can complete the jobs they are called to do. At the beginning of the year we started a physical fitness program at the fire department. Department members are required to spend one hour of duty working on physical fitness. This program has made a huge difference in several of our firefighters. The WPE is just an addition to that program. Before firefighters are eligible to be hired they have to complete a Candidate Physical Agility Test or CPAT, which is basically a WPE. Up to this point there has been no requirement at GFD beyond the CPAT for maintaining fitness. The physical fitness program and WPE are designed to change that. There are also several benefits to physical fitness outside of work performance such as less injuries, quicker recovery time, reduced stress, and overall improved quality of life," Frank said.

As for the new initiatives and the continued pursuit of excellence, Frank admits it is "exciting" to see the two latest initiatives come to fruition. 

"As a department we’ve put a ton of work into both of them. I believe as a whole the core values have helped define us and given us direction. The physical fitness program and WPE has helped overall wellbeing of the department, improved moral and prepares us to do our jobs. When things are bad citizens deserve well trained and physically fit firefighters showing up to mitigate their emergencies. At GFD we are doing our very best to give them what they deserve," Frank said.