SPILL continued
Companies profit through activities that pose a potential danger to those living nearby, and residents cannot afford to protect themselves. In an ideal world, industries would be required to help the community pay for a hazardous-materials team, but that's not the case -- not in Arkansas, and not in Tennessee.
Communities have to acknowledge that proximity to chemical plants "has become a part of life," says John White, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. "Everybody recognizes the potential [for disaster] is there, so they train for that potential." But local governments will have to finance the effort themselves. "Companies don't pay anything toward training."
TEMA, which gets its funding from state and federal sources and receives no support from industry, sends instructors all over Tennessee to provide hazardous-materials training at no cost to local governments. "We train not just firefighters, but police, EMS [emergency medical services] technicians, utilities, and others," says White. "Their only expense is loss of work time."
That's fine as far as it goes, but TEMA's classes aren't the answer to every city's needs, according to John Bondurant, chief of special operations for the Memphis Fire Department. "The state has a limited number of instructors, and Memphis has too many people to train," he says. "Also, there's different levels of training. Some people just get an annual eight-hour basic-awareness course. But to be certified as a haz-mat specialist, the state requires an 80-hour class."
Most Memphis firefighters get this training by taking a two-semester course at State Tech, at a cost of about $150, for which the department reimburses them. The FY 1998 budget allots $3,000 for these State Tech classes, out of a total fire-training allocation of $1,245,429.
But training is only half the equation; setting up a hazardous-materials team means spending a substantial sum on equipment, both initially and annually. Bondurant runs down the list of expenses: "You'll need an air-monitoring system -- that's two to four gas detectors at $1,800 each -- plus calibration equipment at about $600 a year. You'll need at least six Level A chemical suits, at $1,200 each, and some Level B suits, which are $75 to $300. Also, a dozen pairs of gloves, a dozen pairs of chemical boots, self-contained breathing apparatus -- at least four of those, decontamination equipment for the `hot zone,' and reference manuals, which are another major expense at $75 to $300 each."
The manuals are necessary because they describe the characteristics of various chemicals and how each must be handled. It's helpful, adds Bondurant, if the department can buy a laptop computer and get this information on CD-ROM.
Memphis can afford to fund its 42-person Special Operations Team because it spends almost $78 million -- 25 percent of the city's total operating budget -- on fire protection. (Only the police department, at 34 percent, gets more.) But many towns are not so fortunate.
"It does get rather expensive, and it's difficult for a small community to come up with the money for a full-fledged haz-mat team," says Bondurant.
By law, industries aren't obligated to help struggling fire departments develop a team. But some companies do it voluntarily, in the interest of good community relations.
ICI Acrylics has three plants in the Memphis area: at Presidents Island, in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and on Fite Road near Millington. According to ICI safety, health, and environmental manager Phil Nolan, the company has been working closely with the Millington Fire Department to provide free hazardous-materials instruction -- currently only in basic awareness, but eventually at a more advanced level.
Back in February, a tanker truck full of methyl methacrylate overturned near ICI's Fite Road plant. Almost immediately, Millington firefighters diked and dammed the spill, identified the chemical, and called in ICI's hazardous-materials team. Nolan attributes the department's rapid response to the training it received.
"It really does pay off in a big way," he says.
The importance of such training has become even more apparent following the BPS explosion. "The recent tragic incident in West Helena was something of a wakeup call to local fire departments," says Nolan. "It forced them to reassess what they need."
Local Firms Make Mother Jones' "Soul" List
by Tanuja Surpuriya
WE'VE HEARD THAT THERE'S NO business like show business, but soul business?
According to the July/August issue of Mother Jones magazine, a kinder, gentler, and socially responsible workplace is the key to success, and some Memphis-based companies are already in on the trend.
Federal Express and Sara Lee are both listed in the magazine's top "20 Better Places to Work." Memphis, of course, is the world headquarters for FedEx, which is the largest employer in the city, with over 27,000 employees. And while Sara Lee Corp. is headquartered in Chicago, the Sara Lee Meats division, which includes Jimmy Dean and King Cotton Foods, is based in the city here, with about 350 employees.
Journalist Milton Moskowitz, who has spent his career tracking socially responsible businesses, writes that he came up with the list of companies by "weighing their track records in charitable giving, fair labor practices, progressive benefits, sound environmental practices, and, last but not least, satisfied employees."
He writes that while in the past, bringing a sense of spirituality to the business world was unheard of, today more and more companies are finding it the responsible and even profitable thing to do.
FedEx spokesperson Sonja Whitemon says the company has always run under the philosophy of "People-Service-Profit."
"In order for us to be successful, we have to take care of our employees," she says. In Mother Jones, FedEx was noted as having one of the "strongest maltreatment processes in American business," with employees allowed to choose three of five jurors if a complaint goes to company trial.
Whitemon points out that FedEx's no lay-off policy, its generous medical coverage and retirement packages, and its community service alliance with the American Red Cross are examples of how the company incorporates social responsibility with doing good business.
The Sara Lee Corp. was noted for the diversity in its workforce and its generous donations to charities. Jeffrey Smith, senior manager for corporate affairs, says it is important to run a company with a sense of social responsibility.
"As society becomes more diverse," he says, "companies need to adapt and reflect that diversity. By hiring and nurturing employees from different backgrounds and using their talents, we are really making an investment back into our company."
by Phil Campbell
IT'S NOT EVERY DAY THAT THE Shelby County Trustee takes a nonprofit agency to court over delinquent property taxes. Nonprofits normally don't have to pay taxes, so there's rarely a reason for a dispute.
Nevertheless, that's what Trustee Bob Patterson is doing. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis is being taken to Chancery Court over $1,397.56 in property taxes on six pieces of land. The trustee files a suit every year against hundreds of people and organizations who fail to pay taxes after two years have passed.
Habitat has been delinquent on one parcel on Jones Road since 1992. Taxes have been delinquent on a plot of land on North Evergreen for four years; Habitat owes $993.18 on it.
The organization has also failed to pay 1996 taxes on 11 new properties, and if it doesn't pay up by next year, the group will get sued over that, too. If all the delinquencies are totaled, the organization owes the county $2,888.95.
"We have already mailed them five or six letters to come in here and pay the taxes," Patterson says. "We have done everything. They're just ignoring it. I don't know why they don't come in."
"This [situation] is sort of unique," he says. "It may be the only nonprofit you've ever seen owing taxes."
Habitat is unique from other nonprofits because it buys property with the intention of putting it back on the market. If everything goes according to plan, the organization receives a tax-exempt status for the vacant property it buys until it can get a building permit, says Habitat executive director Joyce Collins. Then, with its team of professional contractors, subcontractors, and volunteer builders, the organization constructs a home in four weekends. The property is then turned over to a needy homeowner, who becomes responsible for the property taxes on that land in future years. At worst, Habitat only has to pay taxes for the year in which the home was built.
Collins says she didn't know about her organization's tax problems until the Flyer told her about them. She blames the problem on a number of things. For one, she says Habitat was so disorganized when she took over in 1994 that it did not even know what property it owned. The organization had to request a list of its properties from the county assessor's office. Second, she says the organization changed its address a number of years ago, moving from North Watkins to 555 S. Perkins Extended. Adding to the confusion, she says, is the fact that the group changed its name about the same time it moved, from Habitat for Humanity, Mid-South Inc. to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis.
"We have not received not one tax bill, and if we are behind I would appreciate him [Patterson] sending us the bill at the right address," Collins says.
The local Habitat group has an operating budget of $1.2 million, so, Collins says, the $2,900 shouldn't hurt it, adding that she will take care of the issue right away. "We need to get with Bob Patterson," she says.