Episode 37: Lee Wells | Supporting Our Heroes: Caddo Fire and Our Community Efforts

The primary topic of this episode is the challenges faced by the Caddo Mills Volunteer Fire Department. Lee explains the differences between volunteer and paid fire departments, the financial constraints, and the essential equipment needed. He highlights the need for community support and announces a charity event called the Caddo Spring Concert Series, aimed at raising funds for the fire department. The series will feature live bands, food trucks, silent auctions, and other activities, with all proceeds going towards purchasing crucial equipment like the LifePak 15.

Lee emphasizes the importance of community support in ensuring the fire department is well-equipped to handle emergencies. He also mentions an upcoming ballot item for creating an emergency district to provide consistent funding for the fire department. Wrapping up, Lee thanks the listeners, invites local businesses to sponsor the event, and encourages everyone to participate in the upcoming events.

Transcript

 Welcome to the ranch and table podcast,  where we discuss all things related to our Texas ranch and  our ranch to table restaurant located in downtown Rockwall.  I'm your host, Lee Wells.  Welcome everybody. Welcome to another episode of the ranch and table podcast. I'm Lee Wells, and it's really great to be back.

I know. It's been a, it's been a couple days. I have been  pretty busy, pretty swamped. Sometimes my life has a tendency to get away from me and things stack up with the new location and all the things that we have going. And  part of what I want to talk to you today about is one more thing that we've added to. 

The things we have going and so first of all, let me welcome you and thank you for coming in today and listening  Today's episode is brought to you by Wells Cattle Company both locations  downtown Rockwall and downtown cattle mills and I'm just real thankful that those both of those locations were doing really well both of those  Cattle mills is coming right along.

The truck is coming right along. We're building A following there in trying to treat folks  with excellence and excellent food, all of those things. One little thing coming along that people have been asking for is fries, and fries are not easy. Just so you know, we had to change out. We've got almost all of the equipment on our cook line in that truck to make fries possible.

Little things people don't realize. The  ordering process, since we can't cut fries in there because of our just because  space and other requirements. We had to work a deal with our providers to cut the potatoes for us and then ship them to us. It's a lot of fun. It's all great stuff. But it's on, it's in the works, it's on its way.

So  come out and see us. Of course, we always have fries in the restaurant. That's easy to do, but a handcuff fries on a truck is another thing. And especially with everything else we have going. Come out, see us in the next few days. Another exciting development that has just come up with the truck is for the first time ever, we are going to be at the Hunt County Fair and we're going to be serving our burgers out there at the fair.

So the fair begins April 18th this year and runs for 10 days. So we are going to have to move it from the location in Caddo. And we got a banner coming that's going to say.  gone fishing or something and come see us at the fair. And so we're working on that, but we will have to move over for 10 days. And then we'll be right back in Caddo in our location where we belong.

Come see us. We'd love to serve you a ranch. To table burger. Today I want to talk to you about something again, I've never talked about on this podcast. It's something fairly new to me as well,  but something I feel called to jump into and make happen. As our truck and cattle mills has, we're sitting leasing a spot next to the cattle mills volunteer fire department.

And being there has been an education. I'll tell you, I am not a fireman never, other than fighting fires out in the fields and brush fires and things like that growing up. Really, I've never aspired to be a fireman. Now I come from a long line of firemen. My great uncle, Lee Mayfield, who I'm named after, was the first fire chief in Plano.

And so the first fire chief there, now they've named a big complex after him. He was An important person over there. Great guy. And one of the things that Lee did Early on, many years ago now  is he would get rid of equipment early and buy new equipment when Plano was growing and he was outfitting volunteer fire departments all around the area because he knew how important that support was.

He knew how important it was to have volunteer houses that were able to respond before. The big city could get there and so he worked tirelessly to  equip volunteer firemen and volunteer fire departments with equipment as much as he could pass through the city of Plano and get out to these other places he did.

And he was known for that. He was known around the area for being an equipper and being a leader that would help get the right.  tools and  equipment out to the right places so that these firemen would have the best that they could work with. And and of course, Plano survived all that.

They've just kept buying stuff and new fire houses after new department. It's just been amazing how They were fine, but but Lee Mayfield was known for that. His sons went on to be firemen their kids, line after line of firemen there, and then on my sister's side, her, she's married to a fire chief and then her son, my. 

My cousin is a fireman as well. And a nephew, my nephew is a fireman as well. And just, there's firemen everywhere. But I've never been, I've never been a fireman. It's an education for me. We're sitting there, of course, serving them. They're coming over talking to us. We're going talking to them.

And we're building relationships with these guys. And we're learning about what firefighting's all about. I'm also learning how many calls they go on a day, because I see the truck take off and you hear the truck take off both directions all day long. And these guys are, for the most part, volunteers. 

And what has come to my understanding is that there is there's a difference between a paid, fully supported fire department  and a fire department that's volunteer. Now, I've got to be honest about all this. I certainly want to be fair about it. The city of Cattle Mills  has a budget line and money that goes over to, and I won't get into the numbers with you here today, but a significant amount of money goes from the city budget over to the volunteer fire department.

But most of that, from my understanding, is taken up with truck repairs big ticket items. There's also another stipend that comes in from another source. I don't know if it's county or state or somewhere. Don't quote me on that. That covers fuel. Their fuel bill's over 100, 000 a year.

Just to run that equipment out of there like they do so a big numbers big money cattle mills is one of those small towns that's exploding in growth And as you can imagine it takes a while for  Money to catch up for taxes and new rooftops  to get to the place where they're supporting and that money gets into the departments where it needs to go.

There's a delay there and they're building houses as fast as they can. But that doesn't mean that tax money is coming in as fast as they're building houses. And a lot of the houses are outside of the city limits and this is a city city fire department. It's one of those things that, that  it's not anyone's fault.

It's not the city's fault. They're doing all they can do to equip that fire department. It's just that the growth is so much, they're going through so much. It takes so much that it just hasn't caught up. So I've been watching. how much they work, how hard they work, and then the more I get to know them I'm hearing about things that they need, items that they need that aren't in the budget, that they can't afford.

And traditionally out there they've sold t shirts and calendars and they've done barbecue dinners and things like that to raise money to buy equipment and to buy items that they need. If you can just imagine how much money it takes to buy,  let me say it this way. I know how much money it costs to buy a refrigerator that's commercial versus for my restaurant versus one that you would put at your home.

It's easily twice the money. It's more than that. Sometimes to buy. A stove top that's stainless, that's commercial, that you would put in a commercial kitchen is so much more than one you would put at your home. And you can imagine, the same is true for this first responder emergency service type equipment, it is so expensive.

And the reason is, it's the same reason my stuff in my kitchen is so much more expensive. It has to work every time, and it has to be put through a brutal process. life that your home oven or refrigerator would never understand. And so the equipment has to be built to such high standards, such much better equipment, much better materials.

All of those things means more money. And so all of these things are very expensive to purchase and to hold onto. And then I didn't realize this, that there's life expectancies and,  I guess you would call it expiration dates on some of this equipment. They can only use it so long because they have to ensure that when your home's on fire. 

That, that equipment, that nozzle, that hose isn't going to crack or it's not going to break or it's not going to jam up or whatever it happens to be. So I didn't realize all of this, that there's even like timestamps for nozzles on these trucks that they have to be replaced. And those nozzles are two to 300 a piece.

And there's a whole set. of these on each truck. And they're still using some of those things and they're still making them work, but in a perfect world, they would have the ability to change those out and to do things that they need to do.  And they just can't because the money that's coming in from the city, which is as much as they can move in from the city and the city has to help, isn't quite enough because of how much they're using, how much they're going through.

And and so we just have to step in.  And we have to help. That's what I'm gonna do. That's what I'm asking people to do. So I've put together a fun way to do that. And I'm calling it the Caddo Spring Concert Series. Caddo Spring Concert Series. And we're gonna bring in some live bands. We're gonna bring in Caddo food trucks.

I didn't realize it, but Caddo has a lot of food trucks. And so we're gonna use I've asked all the food trucks in Caddo that I know of to come join us on our lot, and March the 15th, March the 22nd, March the 29th, and April the 5th those Saturdays.  Weather permitting, of course, those Saturdays from five to eight or so, we're going to put on a concert out there in the grass back behind the Opry and the fire station.

And then we're going to have trailer, food trailers, lemonade, cotton candy, ice cream trucks, all kinds of stuff. And so we're going to raise, we're going to raise some money to  fund some of these items that need to come in. And so. That's what I feel like we should do. And it's been amazing the response of the community.

It's, I'm from there. I'm from Caddo,  but I'm the new guy back. I've just now moved my food truck back out there. And I'm, I've not been involved in the city or involved in the. community much other than our footballs stuff and school stuff. But really, I'm the new guy back, but people aren't too bothered by that because they see the need, they see what's happening, and they're jumping in and helping.

And so I'm so glad, I'm so grateful that these other food vendors and these other people see what we're doing and they're jumping in and it's going to be, it's going to be a great time. What I was getting to a minute ago and I got sidetracked, a lot of these guys that volunteer at the Caddo Volunteer Fire Department, they work for full time departments during the day or their regular job is with Rockwall or with McKinney or with Rowlett or some of these other larger fire departments and they're used to reaching for certain tools.

They're used to reaching for certain.  Ability to save lives and to do the work that they do and when they come out to Caddo That's just not the same. They just don't have all those things And so I think that there is a place for us to help the city I think there's a place for us to help the fire department and not step on any toes But to and not belittle the city for not doing it.

That's not my point The city's doing all that they can do we just have to step up and help. I was talking to a guy, a business owner this last week, and he said, Lee, I think the problem is that we just assume that they have everything that they need. When they roll up to an accident or they pull up to a fire, everyone assumes  that they have everything they need on that truck.

And  we don't question that. We don't wonder about that. And. You're letting us know that there are some times that they need some equipment some things that they don't have and we just don't know that so Again, not an indictment against anyone. There's no blame to go any way here. It's just I believe we need to get The knowledge out there that there is some items that are not in the budget that need to be bought and I think we can help.

The other day I was talking to one of the firemen and he said, Lee, I, he was so excited. He said, Lee, I got a, we finally got a video laryngoscope or something like that. Don't quote me on that because I'm not a fireman. I'm not a paramedic. He said, we've had them in, I believe it was Rowlett. He said, we've had them over there for awhile.

And when you're intubating someone that's unconscious and you're trying to get them to breathe and get their airway clear or whatever and put this scope down their throat, he said, it's so much safer, so much easier, so much faster to be able to see what you're doing. And they have them now that have a video ability to them so you can actually see and get right to what you need to be doing and move on to the next thing.

And he said, we finally got one in Caddo. He said, we got our first one this week.  And I said what would something like that cost? And he said that scope, I think he said 2000 or 2, 500 is what that scope costs. And they have one.  And I said, that's awesome. I am really glad that y'all have that.

And he's man, makes our life so much easier, so much safer to do it that way. And my thought was that's just a couple grand.  Um, I wonder what else.  That there is like that could be purchased fairly easy from people who are just concerned and willing to help, again not that anyone should have purchased this for them.

It's just that it's, it is what it is. And I know some people don't like that saying, but it is, it just, it's just our reality.  And I love the guys at the city, again nothing against any other.  The council's a bunch of great guys. The EDC board met with them a few weeks ago. Great people. I have nothing negative to say about any of the leadership in Kettle Mills.

They're all, as far as I know, doing a good job. It's just, I see a need in part of who I am. If I see a need, as you know if you've listened to my podcast, I'm going to do something about it. And I'll ask for forgiveness later, or I'll step on a toe or two if I don't do it on purpose. And we'll get something done.

And that's what we're going to do. We're going to get something done. I went to the, I went to the lieutenant and I said, Hey I'm going to raise some money. What do you need? And he hemmed and hawed a little bit because he knows everything's expensive. Everything's a lot of money. And I said, if you, if I had 10, 000 what could you, what would you go buy? 

And he just real quick said,  there's a unit called LifePak. It's a LifePak 15, I think is what they use. And he said, Lee you put the leads and again, don't quote me on all this. I'm not, I don't know. I'm just relaying information. He, I think what they said was you put these leads on them.  And the machine knows what to do and it just automatically if they need this or that it does it and He said it's an amazing piece of equipment and it's a life saving piece of equipment.

He said and we have one that's operational. It's good. It's new. It's he said we got one  And he said, if I had the money, we would go get another one right now, we would just go buy another one. Because a lot of times what happens, we get on a call and then we get called off onto a separate call or we take the one truck to the fire and the emergency over here.

And then we get an accident call over here and we get split and then we don't have a good one. He said, we have an old one.  But he said, I don't know that we want to hook that up to anybody. He don't know that we trusted, I don't know, again, don't quote me on this. This is just a conversation.

He didn't think he was going to be on a podcast. I should have had him on my podcast today. It's what I should have done. Then he could set it for himself, but I'm just relaying the concept here that there's some place for us to step in and help. And so I feel that, and I want to relay that. And I want you to feel that.

That I want us to raise, first of all, first mark is 15, 000. And we're going to buy them a life pack. And then they're going to have two of those. And here's why. If they're on a call somewhere and my kid has a wreck on 30.  I don't want them to get the other truck.  If my mom has a heart attack  and they call them, I don't want her to get the other truck. 

And again, we just assume  everything's going to be fine because we don't know and we don't want to ask because we don't want to think about it.  But now we know. And so there's some things that these guys need to do their job. And here's another thing about these guys that I have really admired.  They haven't run their mouth and been ugly and nasty.

About what they don't have they've never said one thing to me about what they don't have not one of them Has come to me and said man I wish we had this or we should have that or someone should get us this or the city should buy us that They've never said that None of them have ever said that to me They just put their head down They just go on to the next call.

They try their best with what they have to save a life put a fire out  Pull a car apart get someone out of it. Whatever that call is  They just go do it. They come back and they do it again. One night there was, I don't know, there was three or four calls. There was a house fire, two or three accidents out on 30.

And they just kept coming back. They had to put their food on hold. They all had ordered. And we just had to put all their orders aside and not even make them. Because they took off on these calls and they were back and forth and back and forth. And they never complained.  But I started noticing  In our conversation these things, I believe we can do, we can help.

So this is what we're doing. We're going to put this event together and March 15th is the first one. We've got live bands already lined up to come out and give some good music. I, in my past life was a musician. I'm a pastor. I know a little bit about music and production quality and all of that.

So we have a professional sound coming. We have good bands that can sing and play. I know a lot of people that sing and play. They're not all good. So we're going for the very best that we can find, that we can get. We're asking them to come for, free or for tips or for a little bit just so we can put as much towards the fire department as possible But it's going to be a great show every night And I believe we've got six other trucks that are going to be there Let me see if I can remember off top of my head we have an elotes truck a corn truck.

We have a cotton candy truck. We have an ice cream truck. We have a coffee truck we have a I shouldn't have started this.  Oh, we have a shooting gallery. If you know what these Orby things the orbits or Orby's. I don't know these little.  gel balls, they have guns that shoot them and then targets. And so it's a tent they set up as a shooting gallery.

We have that a couple of our nights, we're going to have corn dogs. And then I've got another guy I'm talking to about for the other two nights bringing in another trailer. So we're going to, and then of course, wells will be there as well. We're going to have a great time. It's going to be a lot.

Oh, did I say lemonade? Lemonade as well. It's going to be just a great time, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's all, the concert's free there's no admission to come in, of course you're going to buy from the vendors that are there, and then all of us vendors are given a percentage of our earnings that day to the fire department.

There'll also be silent auctions each night, so these really cool gift baskets that we're putting together and you come by and we'll do a silent auction on those.  and let people donate some more money to get this done. And so anyway, this is what I wanted to talk to you about today. I know it's a little different,  but it's one of those things that I just jump into and get it done.

I don't know. I just really appreciate all the corporate sponsors. If you own a business in this area and you would like to be a corporate sponsor And I'll just be honest with you, that's how the bulk of the money is being raised is business owners like myself roofing companies, realtors daycares, the various businesses in the area are coming together and we're going to put their name everywhere, we're going to thank them every concert, we're going to put their name on all the social that goes out on social media and all of the flyers, we're going to include their names in everywhere we can to thank them and let them be known, let their name be seen and let their support be known.

But if you want to be a corporate sponsor, it's 1, 000 and we would love to put your name down and that would help us get closer. My goal is 35, 000. That's what I want to raise between now and April 5th. I believe we can do that, and I want to buy them a life pack, 15, 000, and then another 10, 000 worth of miscellaneous items.

They're putting a list together of what they need right now, and I believe we're going to augment what the city's already doing. We're going to augment what the county's already doing. We're going to come together and make a difference in, in the firefighting and the life saving ability of these guys.

They deserve it. They deserve it. And you know what? You'll be thankful too if God forbid something happened in your life and they show up at your door or at your car door that they have the things that they need, the tools that they need to do a good job of saving your life. I hate to talk like that, but that is the absolute reality that we're talking about.

And it affects every one of us. It affects every single one of us because none of us are none of us can avoid the life that happens and what's going to happen tomorrow. As much as I don't want to harp on this, I want to tell you one more thing. And that is, and this is not a political announcement.

This has not been, I have not been told to say this. Actually, they may not even want me to say this, but I'm going to tell my listeners today that  Where I stand on this,  they are putting together an option a point,  what's the word, they're putting together an item. on the November ballot. They're working on getting it on November ballot this year to create an emergency district around Kettle Mills and around us, I think it's going to follow maybe the school district line or something like that, out into the county, outside the city limits.

And they would organize that, but when you do that, you have a tax. And I am not for taxes. I am an anti new tax guy. I said that for the school districts. I have said that many times. However, on this, I live in the county on this. I see the logic behind it. I see the purpose behind it. I see the need behind it.

And I think it's going to be proposed as a 10 cent tax, which on a typical home in cattle mills. is going to be two or three hundred dollars. That's all the charge that's going to be the tax, estimated tax amount. Say it's five hundred, say it's five hundred dollars a year.  But you get,  now income to build a legitimate fire department that's paid, that has resources that we don't have to even do these kinds of things anymore.

Because there's enough tax revenue coming in from everyone that's using them anyway.  While the city is the only one paying now. It's only fair, really, is what I'm saying. That we all help that make this happen.  But here's the kicker that a lot of people are gonna miss. As soon as they put that district into place,  you can call your insurance company and get a discount and get a better rate on your home insurance because, and it'll probably be a better deal, Then the taxes that you're going to pay you'll probably save more money on insurance.

I would almost guarantee you will  On your home insurance with an emergency district covering you then you do now without one So there's really not a downside to this and there's really not a choice as far as I can see Where we can say no to this because if it comes down to it and cattle mills keeps growing the way it does There's gonna there's towns around us even out here.

I think Collin County and Plano just had this issue Or McKinney one of them where they just said we can't support outside our city limit anymore We have to protect our citizens and they just said we're not going to go outside the city limits anymore And then everyone's not gonna have anyone to call Outside of that city limit and you have to create your own I had to create my own volunteer fire department out there or something.

I think it's the right way to go. I think it's the smart way to go. It's a way to grow as a community. Anyway, you didn't tune in today to hear about my thoughts on taxes, but on this subject, when that comes up, if you're in this area, I urge you to say yes to that. I urge you to, to at least dig into it and understand it before you just see it as another tax.

Because again, I am anti tax. I don't want any new taxes ever, but this, I don't even see it as a tax as much as. Paying my share to a legitimate source that needs that fund to be able to turn back around and save my home. If it's on fire or respond to my home, if there's an emergency. So anyway, thank you today for listening, being to be looking for the Caddo spring concert series coming in March.

And I will do my best to be back next week to do another podcast on another topic. But I wanted to get all of this out today to my listeners, to enjoy these things that are coming up. We're putting it together. It's going to be a lot of fun and I hope to see you there. If you have not gotten my book, it's for sale.

I've got a few of them left and then always come by, see us. At Rockwall or Downtown Cattle Mills. And if you are a business owner and you're interested in supporting this, reach out to me my email is lee at wells cattle  co dot com wells cattle co dot com lee at wells cattle co dot com or you can message me on YouTube or however you want to get through to me and talk to me about being part of it and if you want to Donate something for the silent auction.

Let me know. I'm happy to take those items and if you'll donate them, we'll turn around and sell them and make a profit and put it into the fire department. I appreciate you listening today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by Wells and come by anytime. We appreciate you.

And once again,  I'm Lee Wells on the ranch and table podcast. Until next time we say adios, farewell, goodbye, good luck.