August 9, 2018 Minutes

Fire District Commissioner Meeting

Opening Prayer: Dallin called the meeting to order at 8:00. Mike offered the opening prayer. Those present were: Commissioners Mike Miller, Jim Deuel, Dallin Gambles, Gordon Ball, and Roger Anderson; Fire Chief Carl Anderson; Battalion Chiefs Jim Kelly, Blaine Ker, Mitch Bingham, and Nic White. There were a handful of patrons present. Melanie recorded the minutes and Nile was present to present the budget.

Budget Hearing with public input: There was no public input.
Close Budget Hearing. Dallin closed the budget hearing.

Commissioner Meeting

Agenda Approval: Jim moved to amend the agenda to add the vote for the new budget. Mike seconded. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

Minutes: The minutes were reviewed previously by the commissioners. Roger moved to accept the minutes as presented. Gordon seconded. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

Budget Review: Melanie reviewed the budget. We are below the where we would expect to be at this time of the year despite the payroll being 175% above the usual amount due to the large volume of calls.

Approval of Expenditures: Jim reviewed the expenditures and did not see anything that was above what we would expect to be for the number of calls. Jim moved to accept the expenditures of $79,208.72. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

Patron Input: There was no patron input.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Final update on Menan station: Graham said that there are a few loose ends that are getting finished up, but the station is pretty much done. He said that if we hadn’t started building when we did, it would have been substantially more expensive.
2. Menan station open house: Carl said that the open house will be announced in the Jefferson Star next week. The BLM has been invited to the open house as well as other commissioners, fire chiefs and Valley Wide. Mitch briefly described the tour and agenda of the open house. Roger added a big thanks to Mitch for all the time that he has contributed to the construction. Mitch asked that Station 1 and Station 2 cover Station 4’s calls during the open house.
3. Reading and acceptance of SOG for medical record retention – ACTION ITEM: Carl reported that Dennis Wilkinson, Central Fire Attorney, wrote an SOG for record retention. He classified medical reports through state criteria as semi-permanent. These shall be kept for not less than 5 years. Carl said they will start going through the old records and destroying the ones that they can according to the SOG.   Jim moved to accept this SOG for record retention with one change of adding EMS reports to semi-permanent records. Mike seconded. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.
4. Reading and acceptance of SOG for compensation change for volunteers – ACTION ITEM:   The commissioners reviewed SOG B-130 on the compensation plan that was discussed last month. Roger moved to accept SOG B-130 as presented. Gordon seconded. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

These SOGs will be on record at the fire district.

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Excess equipment dispersal: Carl explained that when the old Menan station was emptied, they took out some old equipment that is going unused. Carl asked Dennis if there needed to be an auction for the equipment that cannot be used by the district any more. Dennis said they did not need to have a formal auction but can put them out to bid by advertising in the Star.
2. Budget discussion and acceptance: Nile said that the new construction value in the district has increased by quite a bit over the last three years. Every year over the last five years, the district has decreased the levy due to the increased property values. To go after the budget that Nile has published, we would need to go after some foregone amount, but that needs to be done by vote after the foregone amount has been published in the paper. Since the foregone amount was not advertised, the district will not ask for it this year, but will next year.  The levy will be decreased a little bit again because of all the new construction helping share the tax burden. Jim moved to approve the new budget for 2018-2019 as was posted in the paper in the amount of $1,105,000 in budget revenue. Roger seconded. The vote by Mike, Jim, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

FIRE CHIEF REPORT: Carl reported that this has been a very busy month. He and Mike went to an FMAG meeting and the district will get some money back from the Grassy Ridge fire. We should be getting paid from the Henry Creek Fire from two years ago. Payment on Henry Creek was slowed down while the paperwork and call out protocol was reviewed.   The district learned from the Henry Creek Fire how to have the paperwork prepared for a more expedient payment.

PIO REPORT: Courtney was not present.

BATALLION CHIEF STATION ACTIVITY REPORTS:

Station 1. Jim reported 69 EMS calls and 14 fire calls. They backed station 4 up quite a few times. The volunteers have done a phenomenal job. A lot more people have been responding to calls since the first of August. He has three more EMT’s on the roster and they are getting more applications coming in. He would like to have 30 volunteers at station 1. Morale is up because people are busy.

Station 2. Blaine: 9 EMS calls and 9 Fire calls. They helped at the Grassy Ridge Fire and responded almost immediately after returning from the Grassy Ridge Fire to another fire. The new tender works really nice. They got a new volunteer and an application for another.

Station 3. Nic: 2 EMS and 5 Fire calls. They responded to several brush fires. Station 3 hired a new volunteer and got another licensed EMT.   They are losing some volunteers and need to recruit more.

Station 4. Mitch 8 EMS calls and 8 fire calls. They had 5 fire calls off of highway 33. They reported to the Grassy Ridge Fire and the district received high praise from the BLM. Jim gave personal thanks from the residents of Clark county for the efforts of the volunteers in fighting the Grassy Ridge Fire.

Carl said that for fires that have been started by exploding rifle targets and other fire causing agents, the people who started the fire will be required to pay restitution.

COMMISSIONER REPORT: Jim moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:00. Gordon seconded. The vote by Jim, Mike, Dallin, Gordon, and Roger was unanimous.

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