February 13, 2025 Minutes

February 14, 2025

Fire District Commissioner Meeting

Opening Prayer: Jim Deuel called meeting to order at 7:00 PM, meeting is being recorded via Zoom meeting. The opening prayer was offered by Mike Miller. Present in person were Commissioners Mike Miller, Jim Deuel, and Roger Anderson. Dallan Gamble joined via Zoom as the meeting was ending. Fire Chiefs Nic White and Joe Schimanski in person. Assistant Chief Jared Giannini attending via Zoom meeting. BC Mitch Bingham. Attorney Dennis Wilkinson. Office Manager Amanda Albertson took minutes.

Approval of Minutes: Roger made a motion to approve the minutes of the January meeting. Mike seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Mike and Roger in the affirmative.

Budget Review: Amanda reported for Nile Hall that to date, spending is within the budget.

Approval of Expenditures: Mike moved to accept the expenditures of $81,349.41 and $117,789.37 for payroll for a total of $199,138.78. Roger seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Mike and Roger in the affirmative.

Old Business:

  1. New Turnouts: Chief White provided an update to let commissioners know the approved turnouts have been ordered. Delivery should be in within 6-8 weeks.
  2. Extrication Equipment: Chief White provided an update; the approved equipment has been ordered. Delivery ETA by the end of February. The District will be conducting district wide training prior to putting the equipment into service.
  3. Heater at Ririe Station: Installation is complete. Personnel are very appreciative for the quick installation.
  4. Heater Replacement at Station 1: Installation is also complete. Thank you.

New Business:

  1. Robert Renna: Due to weather conditions and Robert traveling back from Island Park area; we skipped Item 1 waiting for his arrival.

Rober arrived at 7:46 PM. Review of the budget audit for FY2023-2024, covering pages 8, 7, 6 and 4 of the report.  The District is doing very well with managing its funds annually and planning for future needs.

  1. Ririe Station meeting update: Chief White working with Attorney Dennis Wilkinson on the next step to move the process forward with the insurance company.
  2. Zone 5 Fire Commissioner Seat: Jim opened the discussion. As we are all aware, with the passing of Gordon Ball the Zone 5 Commissioner Seat is open.  Public notice has been posted in the Jefferson Star as of yesterday February 13, 2025. Application process opens Friday February 14, 2025, and closes February 28, 2025.  Jim asked for interviews to be set up as soon as the posting closes. The appointment will be made and announced at the March meeting.
  3. Paramedic School: Chief Schimanski requested approval to send 2 personnel to paramedic school. Researched a few different programs, to use the Boston NMETC online program. Classes are 10 months online, with a 2-week boot camp, and onsite final for an overall 12-month investment. Cost is $11,000 per student, broke down into a $2,800 deposit and then monthly payments for the remainder of the program. Our personnel have started the pre-requisite class of A&P on their own at their own expense. They will also be responsible for their airfare and lodging to visit the school for the boot camp section, so they have some personal investment in the program and completion. Roger motioned to approve sending 2 personnel to the paramedic program as outlined in the discussion. Mike seconded and the voting was unanimous by Jim, Mike and Roger in the affirmative. 
  4. Plan Review Fee Schedule: Chief Schimanski requested approval to implement the proposed fee schedule. This fee schedule implementation is due to the Districts’ increase in plan reviews and inspection requests. We have been working with the contractors in the area to inform them of changes coming. A review of the State Code, the State Fire Marshal’s Office fees, and surrounding cities fee schedules was conducted. Impact fees are already in place for Jefferson County. We will implement a policy that will outline the same impact fee schedule for the cities of Rigby, Ririe, and Menan. We are following up with Jefferson County regarding access to Cityworks so the fees can be assessed to the permits all in the same application. The proposed Fee Schedule is in line with the State Code.  Mike motioned to approve, Roger seconded, and voting was unanimous by Jim, Mike and Roger in the affirmative.

Fire Chief Report: Chief White advised that Jim Kelly and Mike McCabe both gave notice of retirement effective immediately. The Battalion Chief position was posted internally. Interviews for candidates will be on Monday February 17, 2025.

Captain Cody Thornton tendered his resigned due to personal reasons. We were able to hire off our current eligibility list. Russel Overfield was offered, and he accepted a full-time firefighter position. His start date is February 20, 2025.

We received a Grant from the Idaho Healthcare Coalition in the amount of $20,000 for a new Lucas device. The grant will cover most of the purchase, we may have to cover a small difference with our budgeted funds.

Engine 5 had to be taken to Boise for the repairs it needed, due to the mechanic not being able to complete the repairs when he visited the station.  The repairs will take a couple weeks. 

Ambulance District Petition Update – we currently have about 30-40 signatures. The commissioners and our personnel have been going around getting them. We have to give notice to the County by February 28th.  For anyone gathering signatures please have them to me by February 20th so we can get our paperwork turned in by the 28th.

BC Report: None was given.

Assistant Chief: We had 66 Transports for January. The new billing fees have been implemented by the billing company.

Deputy Chief Report: We have been really busy dealing with inspections.  We have Firefighter I training class starting this month with a Hazmat class included.  We will be scheduling Wildland refreshers here soon.  

Break at 740 for 10 minutes; waiting for Robert Renna arrival.

Readjourned 748, Robert Renna arrived at the meeting.

Commissioner Report: Nothing else to add.

The meeting adjourned at 8:04 PM.

Patron Attendance:

Matthew Brockbank

Ember Edwards

Chris West

Whit Albertson

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