January 11, 2024 Minutes

January 12, 2024

Fire District Commissioner Meeting

Opening Prayer: Mike called the meeting to order at 8:00 PM. The opening prayer was offered by Dalin Gambles. Present were Commissioners Jim Deuel, Mike Miller, Gordon Ball, Roger Anderson, and Dallin Gambles. Fire Chiefs Carl Anderson, Nic White, Jared Giannini, BC’s, Mitch Bingham, Jim Kelley. Nile Hall took minutes. Dennis Wilkinson was also present.

Swearing in individuals elected: Nile Hall conducted the swearing in of Gordon Ball, Roger Anderson, and Dallin Gambles for their additional 4-year term. Brody Shaffer was sworn in as a Full Time Fireman who replaced Cody Thornton who left the employment of Central Fire District.

Dallin moved to accept the agenda with the change that the Audit Report by Robert Hardy CPAs would move to the first item of business.

Dallin moved to approve the minutes of December 2024. Roger seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike, and Gordon in the affirmative.

Budget Review: Nile reported that the budget is within the limits and as of December 31, 2023, our financial position is doing well.

Approval of Expenditures: Jim moved to accept the expenditures of $17,007.05 and $97,400.15 for payroll for a total of $114,407.20. Gordon seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike, and Gordon in the affirmative.

The audit report was presented by Robert Renna of Robert Hardy CPA’s Jim moved to accept and approve the audit report for fiscal year 2022-2023. Roger seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike, and Gordon in the affirmative.

Old Business:

  1. Engine Replacement: Discussion was had regarding the signing of a contract for only 1 new fire engine which will require one payment each year for the next three years starting on January 26, 2024. The estimated cost of replacing an engine is $856,034. The yearly cost would be $265,006 per year. We could take a discount in Jan 2024 of $30,777, in Jan 2025 of $21,646, and Jan 2026 of $8,593 making the total price with discounts $795,018. Jim moved to sign the contract for one new engine and table the discussion for other items until insurance figures are received on the losses of equipment and trucks in the Ririe fire. Roger seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike, and Gordon in the affirmative.
  2. Impact fees: It has come to our attention that impact fees are not collected from buildings inside of the city limits of Rigby, Menan, Lewisville or Ririe. Roger moved and Gordon seconded that we give approval to our administration and lawyer to investigate the process of requesting that impact fees be charged on building permits for new construction.

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Audit report was acted on before Old Business.
  2. Lewisville station: Jim moved that we table the discussion regarding an addition to the Lewisville station until a later time. Gordon seconded and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike, and Gordon in the affirmative.
  3. Snorkel Truck is not being used so much and it was decided that we contact Idaho Falls Fire if they want to receive it back. It was given to Central Fire a few years back.
  4. Ririe Fire insurance claim: Discussion was concluded that we cannot make any decisions about claim negotiation until all facts and bids are received. This item will be up for discussion at the next meeting in February. 

FIRE CHIEF REPORT: Carl’s truck was hit on a call by an uninsured motorist. It has been repaired by Ding Genie, but we will need to pay a $2000 deductible on it. We need to evaluate the value of equipment and buildings to see if we are insured properly. During 2023 there were 1564 EMS calls, that is 116 more calls than 2022. There were 208 Fire calls in 2023 which is 50 calls less than 2022. 

Battalion Chief input: No comments

ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF: Slade roofing has a Drone worth $25,000 that they want to donate to us to use for search and rescue, heat sensors, zoom camera and other gadgets that could be helpful in things. A number of other fire districts helped support the fire at Ririe and wanted us to know that they are more than willing to help out during the time we are short equipment out there.

ASSISTANT EMS CHIEF: There were 43 ambulance transports for the month, 5 of which were nonresidents of Jefferson County. Payments are starting to arrive on some of the past transports. It will take 1-2 months until we get things into a rhythm with our accounting people that do the billing and collections for the ambulance services. At this point $41,328 has been billed for previous transports. 

Commissioners Report: Jim commented that IF Fire lost a great firefighter/paramedic, Neal Pfunder this last week. He has been one that our people have worked with as a paramedic. Dallin made a motion to adjourn the meeting, and Gordon seconded, and voting was unanimous by Jim, Dallin, Roger, Mike and Gordon in the affirmative. The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM. 

Roger-EMS Training/Gordon-Equipment /Dallin-Facilities/Jim-Budget/Mike-PR

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