T-L Photos/GAGE VOTA St. Clairsville Police Chief Matt Arbenz informs City Council on Monday that his department and the Cumberland Trail Fire District will be teaming up to create a new Rescue Task Force.

St. Clairsville City Council President Jim Velas asks council if members would like to continue to have regularly scheduled meetings at the Kevin Barr Event Center or return to the city building.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Police Chief Matt Arbenz is embarking on an effort to create a new task force.

Arbenz, along with representatives of the Cumberland Trail Fire District, recently attended a weeks-long program to become Rescue Task Force certified. He told city council Monday that the St. Clairsville Police Department and Cumberland Trail Fire District will be training together, learning the valuable information he learned in the program.

“After we’re good with each other and comfortable, we’re going to push that out to the rest of the (Belmont) county’s law enforcement and EMS agencies, and then that’ll be something that we’ll train on every year from here on out,” Arbenz said.

Councilman Don Vincenzo asked Arbenz if he could explain to council what was taught in the program.

“All of these critical incidents, mass shootings that we’ve all been unfortunate enough to see, the chaos that ensues when that is done. The police all go swarming into the scene, and EMS and fire stage and they’re not allowed to come into that scene by their agency’s training,” Arbenz said. “They’re not allowed to come in until they’re guaranteed that the scene is cold, as in the incident is over. And the problem that that causes is the people dying from hemorrhaging.

“So what a Rescue Task Force does, say, for instance, if a mass casualty event like that were to happen in Barnesville, St. Clairsville would be a Rescue Task Force for Barnesville, where law enforcement and EMS would combine together and move as one unit and get those medics into a warm zone. The event doesn’t have to be over. We just can’t go straight to the heart of it, but we can escort and guard EMS units to get in there and start combat medicine on them and get them evacuated probably 10 times faster.”

He said the firefighters and emergency medical staff would be required to wear ballistic vests and helmets to help ensure their safety while entering warm zones, which are an active scene.

He added that the Belmont County Emergency Management Agency has been warehousing an incident response trailer full of casualty care equipment and has decided to give it to the new task force.

“The trailer will now be maintained by Cumberland Trail and our department. We’ll go through its inventory and fix everything up. So whenever something like that hits, that trailer would be one of the first things that’s hooked up and gets to the scene,” he said.

Arbenz added that the Rescue Task Force will begin training on June 17.

Following Arbenz’s briefing, council President Jim Velas asked council if members would like to discuss whether the regularly scheduled meetings should continue to take place at the Kevin Barr Event Center or if they should return to the city building.

The past two meetings have taken place at the Kevin Barr Event Center to better accommodate handicapped residents due to council chambers being on the upper level of the city building, which can only be accessed by stairs.

Vincenzo said he believes each location has its own drawbacks with the Kevin Barr Event Center’s biggest challenge being that its acoustics make it difficult to hear in.

He suggested that maybe council could allocate some money to provide a small public address system to not only better hear each other, but for residents in attendance to better hear council members as well.

“This is a rented facility. Eric (Gay) has said that he can reserve this for us on the council meeting nights. But then again, we never know when it’s going to be rented and there’s no guarantee that if we have an emergency or special meeting that it’ll be down here, because they might be rented out that night,” Velas said.

He added that City Law Director Joe Vavra pointed out that there is no mandate that council meet in the city building.

“The charter does say that the meeting will be held in the council chambers. Right now, the one council chambers we have is in the city building,” Velas said.

Vincenzo replied that the Kevin Barr Event Center is a good location, but he believes council should return to the city building until it is able to come up with a strategy that works for everyone involved.

Councilwoman Kristi Lipscomb agreed with Vincenzo, adding that she understands and agrees that it is a pressing matter to have accessible meetings. She said the decision to move from the city building to the Kevin Barr Event Center was a way to try out a new location, but she believes the meetings should be held in the city building until a feasible alternative plan is constructed.

Lipscomb added that she’s heard rumbling of residents saying that the city should build or purchase a new city building. She noted that she believes that it is not only impossible but would be irresponsible of the city to do so.

“We have so many pressing needs in the city, and I know I’ve heard rumors that people want a new city building. I just think at this point in time that is fiscally irresponsible to even think about,” Lipscomb said.

Council then agreed unanimously that its 7 p.m. June 16 meeting will take place at the city building.