By T. Scott Boatright
Grambling City Councilman Jerry Lewis has decades of service as a Lincoln Parish firefighter.
And now Lewis is using that experience to work with the Grambling Fire Department to try and upgrade and move up from the Class 8 Property Insurance Association’s (PIAL) fire rating, which puts the city near the borrow of state ratings.
PIAL’s rating scales from 1-10, with 1 being the best grade a city can earn.
That rating is based on grades for a municipality’s fire department operations, which make up 50% of the overall rating, water supply (40%) and communications (10%).
Better (lower) scores reflect lower risk and can help property owners qualify for reduced fire insurance premiums. PIAL does reviews and issues fire ratings every five years.
Lewis, who served as a city of Ruston firefighter for more than 33 years, said during last week’s Grambling City Council meeting that improving the city’s communication system, including providing every GFD firefighter and vehicle with a new radio would be a crucial first step.
“We’re working on getting a new system that would allow our fire department and firefighters to talk with others — the Lincoln Parish Fire Department, Ruston Fire Department and any other firefighting organization that can be on the same system and frequency no matter how far away.”
Currently Grambling’s Fire Department is dispatched through the Grambling Police Department.
“Right now our fire department personnel can’t talk to anyone but ourselves and the Grambling Police Department,” Lewis said. “We need to upgrade that to be able to talk to every department in the parish and even beyond.You never know what might happen where the Grambling Fire Department might face a situation that it simply can’t handle on its own. Other departments are able to communicate with each other. We need to be able to do that, too.”
The Grambling Fire Department has over the past year or two added a new ladder truck donated by the city of Baton Rouge, added more firefighters working to increase certification levels and added more equipment.
Grambling has also been working to upgrade its water system, with new water lines and adding valves which it didn’t have previously to the entire city’s supply system.
“That’s important because of water pressure,” Lewis said. “Being able to shut off some surrounding water supplies by using the valves that are being added means more water pressure to areas where that is needed during fires.
“And all of those continuing improvements will help us hopefully get a better PIAL rating when a new review is done next year. What I really hope to do is chip away at it and move up three points every review. I think that can be done. If we can get down to a six next year, that would be a good start. Then, if we could get down to a 3 or 4 PIAL rating after the next review, then that will be major progress in less than a decade.
After being priorly designated with a 6 PIAL rating, that score dropped to Class 7 after the city’s 2017 review.
Then, due to what Lewis called a lack of training, inadequate equipment and missing paperwork, which were all mentioned in the 2017 PIAL review, the city of Grambling’s score fell to the current Class 8 rating after the city’s 2022 review.
The fact that the city has been without a true fire chief since 2021 when former Chief Patrick Conley resigned after being arrested for domestic violence hasn’t helped the situation.
Conley was convicted in 2022 on charges of second-degree rape, second-degree sexual battery and a count of domestic abuse with child endangerment. He was sentenced to 95 years in prison at hard labor with the benefit of parole. After Comley appealed that decision, the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed all of Conley’s original convictions and sentences.
Several potential fire chief candidates have been talked to in recent years about potentially taking over following Conley’s resignation but Grambling has remained without a true fire chief since.
Alexio Williams-Hargrove has worked for the Grambling Fire Department since 2020 and has served as a de facto GFD leader of sorts under Grambling Police Chief Tommy Clark’s supervision and Lewis’ consultation.
“We’re training our chief inside,” Lewis said. “We’re getting there. (Hargrove-Williams) is getting his certifications. We’re not going to give him a chief position (at this point) because he’s not up to that level. Time in class and getting his certifications will bring him up to where he needs to be. He’s getting there.
“But, we’ve got three people coming up. Either one of the three will be able to do it once they get all their certifications.”
