The Board of Public Health and Safety on April 2 approved contracts for multiple FEMA‑approved instructors to teach a Rescue Technician school, with payments for instructors varying by scope and time commitments.

Tom Neil, division chief and program manager for Indiana Task Force 1, told the board the Rescue Technician program is a comprehensive technical‑rescue curriculum that follows NFPA standards and covers disciplines from auto extrication to structural collapse. He described the program as roughly "420 hours of total training" delivered across multiple sessions beginning in April and carrying over into 2026 to avoid conflicts with hurricane season and deployments.

Neil said the contracts shown in items J–P are paid from the city's 2024 FEMA cooperative agreement funds earmarked for training. He explained differences in instructor compensation reflect instructors' multiple specialty disciplines and extra teaching engagements: "Each of these instructors have their own specialty disciplines, so some of them may have, multiple disciplines that they teach, and so we had to make sure that we allowed, for the allotment of their multiple teaching engagements." The board moved to amend the program description wording to read "FEMA Urban Search and Rescue course instruction," approved the amendment, and then voted to adopt items J–P as a group.

The board's approval authorizes the chief to execute the instructor contracts; the meeting record shows unanimous approval with no additional conditions recorded.

Votes at a glance

• Agenda items 040225J–P — Contracts for FEMA‑approved instructors for Rescue Technician school (varied NTE amounts); motion to amend program description and to approve J–P: approved.