January 28, 2009 –
Mayetta: PBPN member Melvin LewisII has been named the Director of Emergency Services and is now overseeing the Potawatomi Fire Department and Emergency Services.
Lewis has been with the Potawatomi Fire Department for 14 years and worked in several positions including being a firefighter, shift captain, and supervisor of the wild lands fire prevention program. His most recent accomplishment, before becoming director, was helping to coordinate the placement of a Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS) on the common land that collects weather data used to monitor wild land fire conditions. Steve Duryea, from the PBPN Environmental Protection/Planning department, also assisted Lewis in computerizing the project for the Nation.
When asked about becoming director Lewis said, “I’ve learned a lot from the other fire chiefs through the years and I am pleased that I now have the opportunity to apply what I learned from them. Hopefully, as a department we can move in a positive direction that will better help the community.”
The Fire Department has been located in a state-of-the-art facility located at 15468 K Road, Mayetta, Kansas since 2001 and has 24-hour service. It provides fire and emergency medical care/ambulance service on the common land and surrounding communities when requested and also conducts several emergency preparedness awareness programs and trainings each year.
For more information about the RAWS weather station go to www.raws.dri.edu/cgi-bin/rawMAIN.pl?ndKPOT.