Why Warden's Report was Started
We decided to start this site because of the outrageous amount of money that the towns' tax payers were spending on online burning permits. Also with a volunteer service residents were having trouble catching up with town fire wardens to obtain hand written permits (which are free) and this would push more people to the state site. It bothered me to see the amount of money that was being spent on a “Free Service.”
Our town was also spending $2,100 yearly for town wardens to write permits. Hand written permits are great, but there is no way for everyone to know that a hand written permit has been issued. On top of that, there is no data collection of hand written permits. So I thought something had to be done, and I came up with "Warden's Report".
The site went live in West Gardiner at the end of 2012. With moderate advertising, the site started to take off. Since the start of 2013, wardensreport.com has written around 100 permits and the state site has issued 7, saving town residents approximately $350.00, not to mention the $2,100 that was cut off the town’s budget.
Over the last couple months Warden's report has picked up other towns along with the State Forest Service and some dispatch centers allowing all permits to be at their finger tips.
About Us
Hey Fellow Firefighters. My name is Gary Hickey II. I have lived in central Maine my whole life. In 2001, at the age of 18, I joined my town’s volunteer fire department (West Gardiner), along with my best friend Chris Mclaughlin. After graduating high school, I went to the University of Maine at Augusta for criminal justice, with plans of being a police officer. I spent the next few years doing a lot of trainings with the fire department and fell in love with the job. Chris was working on a Bachelor’s degree in business administration at The University of Southern Maine. After graduating from Orono, Chris went onto EMS and started working as a career firefighter for the city of Gardiner and is current employed by the city of Augusta. After taking some time off from school and working for my family’s construction business, Chris talked me into going back to school for EMS, and I now currently work for the city of Gardiner as a firefighter. I also went back to the University of Maine Fort Kent where I got my reserve officer certification and currently work for the town of Richmond as a part time police officer. We are both still currently living in West Gardiner, and are going on our 12th year of volunteering for the town.
Warden’s Report
Offering Communities Free Online Burning Permits!!
www.wardensreport.com
What is Warden’s Report
Warden's Report is an online site, where residents from participating towns/cities can go to obtain free burning permits. It also allows Fire Chiefs, Dispatchers, Forest Rangers and Town Wardens to access a data base so they can view all active permits, as well as old permits.
It’s a fast and simple way for Fire Chiefs/Warden’s to keep track of all the fire permits that are being issued in their town. Warden’s Report is also a fast and easy way for residents to get a burning permit and not have to use their time and gas tracking someone down that can write a permit.
One of its greatest features is the “Map Link” under the login. This is found on all permits. This allows for dispatch to pinpoint smoke investigations that may be permitted burns. It also gives dispatch directions at their finger tips to relay to first responders if they are dispatched to an address that their not familiar with.
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