Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District

Transcription

1 Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Minutes October 13, Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT Board Members Present: Diane M. Adams, District Clerk Brad Robbins, Treasurer Bob Shackleford, Member Charles Hightower, Member It is October 13, 2018 at 10:03 am. This is the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District monthly meeting and we are now in session. We have a quorum. Chairman Comments: It s been a very busy month here at the fire station. A lot of paperwork has flown through this office. A lot of meetings have been attended and we ve got a very busy productive meeting ahead of us today. Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes by Treasurer Robbins. Motion was seconded by Member Shackleford. Treasurers Report: Mountain America $456, Snow Emergency Fund $246, Snow Removal Funds $131, Zions Fire Checking $433, Zions $255, Total Checking/Savings $1,523, As of Treasurer Robbins: Our Mountain America Account is our CIP Account. The reason why you re seeing no change from one month to the other is because we were having problems getting into this account. I had to go down to the bank and get passwords changed. And so now we are able to access that, but this came out before that occurred.

2 District Clerks Report: Taking a look at our expenses this month, everything appears to be in a very good situation. While Chief and I were working on the budget for the 2019 year, we found several postings that have happened. We re not sure if we told them the wrong GL or they posted to the wrong GL. It is minor line adjustments that will make up some of the outages. I m looking at Station 2 line 73, under Pest Control. We had something posted under Pest Control and it should have been posted under Maintenance. These are just little corrections that we re going to be able to do before the end of the year so that it will look very good. An interesting thing, Pagers under Communications; we spent money in purchasing pagers this year, but again the overall Communications ledger is well under spent. It s pretty much that way through the entire report. We are in a very good position as far as our funding and monies to be spent. I know I ll be asking the Treasurer to take money that is in the Fire Checking Account that was tagged for Capital that has not been spent this year to take a check and write it back to the Capital Account so that we can start next year out correctly, but we ll speak a little bit more about that when we talk about the Budget. The only other thing of any great issue, and I m sure that Chief will probably talk about this during part of his report is Line 262, a little bit of repairs on Engine 71. Engine 71 has been our nonperformer this year and so that is one that is truly over budget for the entire line, again at the end of the day we are well under our total amount of monies that can be expended. That concludes the Clerk s Report. Chiefs Report: Chief Tuttle: Response: Since our last Board Meeting we have responded to 25 calls for service: 11 Medical calls, five of which were MVA accidents 8 Fire calls, one of which was a wildland in on Harris Rim that lasted two days 1 Public Assist call 5 Fire pit approvals Fleet: Vehicle Maintenance: Weekly rig and equipment checks were performed. We have an issue with our dozer. It is in limited service. T-71 is out of service due to a fuel pump issue E-71 is out of service due to a transfer case issue. It is scheduled to be taken to Baird Diesel for repair and estimates are pending.

3 E-77 was out of service last week due to fuel filter and screen issues. Baird Diesel made the repairs and the unit is back in service. Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser The contents of one of the Stop the Bleed Public Access Stations have been stolen. The Public Access Station that was affected was the station located in the Post Office. A report was made with the Kane County Sheriff s Office on September 28th, the same day it was discovered. After an in house investigation it was discovered that the items stolen were taken between 4:00 pm and 5:25 pm on that same day, September 28th. The box that contained the equipment has been removed and there are no future plans for maintaining the Public Access Station at that location. Classic Air Medical Classic Air Medical is moving their air ambulance from Kanab and placing it in Page. This was a financial decision on their part, Classic Air Medical will still be available to us for emergency incidents but their response times will be delayed. Estimates are an additional 15 to 30 minutes. Life flight is still available out of St. George. When we request an air ambulance they will dispatch the first available with the shortest response time. Combination Fire Department We have had some changes in our full time personnel recently. Firefighter Kurtis Madsen has resigned to take a full time position with the West Jordan Fire Department. This will double his salary and give him advancement opportunities in the future. His last day was October 5 th. He is being replaced by Firefighter Mike Ahlstrom; Firefighter Ahlstrom s first day will be October 16 th. Firefighter Mike Johnson has resigned for financial reasons. He needs to spend more time with his electrical contractor business and cannot commit to the 48/96 hour schedule any longer; his last day will be October 15 th. He is being replaced by Firefighter Adam Scott. Firefighter Scott s first day will be October 20 th. Firefighter Andy Black has resigned as well to take a full time position with the Lehi Fire Department; this will double his salary and give him advancement opportunities in the future as well. I am interviewing a possible replacement on Wednesday. These fire departments that are picking up our members have 4 person engine companies and multiple manned stations. This relates to possible advancements in rank and earnings as they promote to Engineer and Captain ranks. Training Training has been scheduled for the next year. The EMT class will be in house and the fire training will be here at our station but sponsored by UFRA using their instructors and props. Fire Instructor I (October 25-27) Hazardous Materials Operations (November 3 December 1) Emergency Medical Technician (January 5 March 9)

4 Firefighter I & II (March 22 June 15) Apparatus Driver Operator (July 26 September 7) Emergency Apparatus Driving Simulator (September 27 & 28) MOU with the State and Federal Agencies We have billed for the Harris Rim Fire last month and expect to receive a check for the amount of $2, from the State of Utah through our MOU agreement. That concludes my Chief s Report. Snow Liaison Report: Member Shackleford: October marks the beginning of the snow season. I ve spoken to both snow removal contractors and they are prepared to start once we receive measurable snowfall. We have received several dustings of snow already, but nothing that has required snow removal. That concludes my report. Old Business: Townsite Act: This is going to be verbal because the documentation that I requested from Sunrise Engineering has not come in. The Fire Department was invited to attend an update meeting regarding the Townsite Act. It was held Monday afternoon in the community building. I thought that we would be in a place where we would see legal descriptions and parcel descriptions and all of that sort of data that we all need. Joe Philips was the gentleman from Sunrise Engineering who did most of the speaking at this particular meeting. Also there with him was Mike Noel. It was a very very informal meeting. They are behind schedule. There s a map of tentative parcels of the 89 acres that the forest department is selling during this transaction. In lump that has gone to Kane County already, what Kane County is doing is parceling out to all of the entities that are purchasing parts of the property. So first, to speak to our property that has been allocated. It s a little under 10 acres. Just to my left there s going to be an access back to the property where the ponds are which will be Kane County Conservancy Water District. To my right is going to be Western Kane County Special Services District. Once they get that property there, then they will be putting the dumpsters over there. They understand clearly that the access to their property cannot be from our property. They are going to have to bump in their own access on their own parcel. That information has already been shared. We were told that the funding from the state is coming through last week. Legals are being written as all of this is going on for these tentative parcels. At that time I went up and looked at this one map that he had on his table and Mike Noel knows that I work with the Fire Department because he said Here s the well. He put his finger on it and I just said And

5 here s the line which needs to be moved. So, they are aware that we still wish to have the well on our property, not an easement. I have seen no legal descriptions. We ve had nothing provided to us yet, but they are very well aware of it. Their whole impetus to this is the time line to put in the sewer systems. And they believe that in all seriousness they re looking at spring and summer of They do not believe they re going to be in a position to do it next year with all of the work that they have to get done. There was a conversation about hookup fees. Kane County and all of their business partners are going to charge $1,750 for a hookup fee. That s per parcel not per toilet or any of the other things that we had heard about previously. Whether or not we are going to need to pay that fee, we would have to attend a Kane County Board Meeting and ask for an exemption because we are a special district. Mike Noel would not commit to that as he won t be in office next year. The worst it may be is $1,750 to connect to it. On our parcel, the way they have designed the sewer is because the ponds are behind us. Right now our manhole and our drop to our septic are right out here in the parking lot, so on their plans they showed the sewer following that line. I just said, That doesn t look good from a lot of reasons! I didn t go into detail, but operationally, how are we going to get our engines in and out. It is going to disrupt our parking lot. It s going to disrupt getting into the fire station. There are just a lot of things that need to be discussed about that; and I said that they need to discuss with the stakeholders and to be property owners this configuration. Joe Philips wrote it down. He also hasn t returned 3 of my phone calls; typical, as far as communication with this. They know that it s going to cost between seventy and eighty thousand dollars a year to be able to run this new sewer system. The Water District has guaranteed thirty-three thousand dollars a year to help offset those costs to help those people that are on the new sewer system for their particular costs. They are inviting the homes on the south side of 14 between the Village and Duck Creek Ridge Road and would like those people to join into this. So the update is: we haven t seen a legal description; they know that we re concerned about the well; and they know that we are concerned about the tentative plan to have that sewer be right underground. Funds on Deposit: Treasurer Robbins: At the last meeting I talked a little bit about the fact that the State of Utah has got what they call a PTIF fund and that is Utah Public Treasurers Investment Fund. The way I found out about this was that as part of the Treasurer s function you have to contact the state twice a year to provide them with the proper financial documentation to prove we have funds on account. When I was talking with her she said how come you re not in our PTIF. I said that I didn t know what that is. So she started explaining it to me. Essentially, I m from California and I ran a city in California, it s the same thing California has. States have these different funds to where cities and public agencies can park money in that fund and keep it liquidated and pull it out when you need to. In regard to the Utah PTIF presently they have fourteen and a half billion dollars in that fund. They have over six hundred entities that are a part of it. I asked her for a list to provide to the Board so that everybody could see the different cities and they said there were too many. Those are cities, those are counties, those are special districts, those are school districts, and those are any type of governmental agency that exists out there that has money in this fund. The thing about this fund that s a little bit different is they do invest income private securities, but they pool their money in order to get a competitive rate. Right now the fund is paying 2.5 percent interest. On all of our accounts we re at 0.5 percent interest or less. If we were to take our Mountain America fund which is our CIP account, that money essentially just sits there most of the time. We would have made approximately $11,000 in interest last year and where we are at right now we ve made $2,200 in interest. So, it s quite a big difference I think in the amount of money that we could actually make with our investments. Now the thing about it is, it s not insured. That was kind of a big

6 thing with the Board in the past, but FDIC has the insurance requirements for governmental agencies where if you have $250,000 or less in a checking account or a savings account, it s insured. If you go above that it s not insured. So if you look at some of our accounts like Mountain America, we re not insured for almost $200,000. Our Zions Fire Checking is not insured for almost $200,000. Most big cities they have way more than $250,000. Insurance is important, but I don t know if it s all that important when you start talking about some of the different interests that you can actually make here. This is administered by the State of Utah. It is not administered by anybody else. So, I m just bringing it up to the Board to find out exactly what you want to do; if you want to move money to it or not. Quite frankly Mountain America is a pain to deal with. This isn t the first time we ve had a problem with signature people. Frank and I went there several times to get things resolved. So, if we re going to do something I would recommend we move that money into this PTIF and get a higher interest rate. Do we receive checks or do we do a demand? Treasurer Robbins: They are not a checking account. They are an ACH. They actually would deal with Mountain America directly and they would pull that money out of Mountain America and put it in this and set up a separate account for us. Most cities have more than one account. The one thing I don t know about is signature authority and who can withdraw and who cannot. I need to do more research on that. This isn t something we need to make a decision about today. I just want the Board to be looking at it. I looked at the documentation that you had forwarded so far. I figured that with the entities that I know that use it, it has proven to work very well. The discussion continues on this topic between the Board Members. This agenda item is tabled until the next Board Meeting. Open Board Position: We know with Chairman Petullo s resignation that left our Board short and we have had 2 people express their interest in being on our Board. Charlie Duvall is here. By introduction Charlie, could you maybe talk to the Board and tell everybody a little bit about yourself and why you would like to be on the Board. Charlie Duvall: I retired April 1, 2017 and since that point I ve gotten involved, as most of you know, with Swain s Creek and the Fire Council. I Chair the Fire Council and have been very active with Salli in the Community Coalition. It s my goal to help the community. Just recently we formed The Greater Duck Creek Area Fire Council which will be the mother for 16 communities to report in with their in-kind dollars and to help them out on fire safety. This particular council will be working hand in hand with Spencer Rollo, John Smith, and basically the Forest Service and we will be the one on one for getting grant money for our community. I m pretty excited about it. This particular community shouldn t have to meet more than 2 to 3 times a year during the season. I feel that this Board here is one of the main cogs in the

7 wheel that makes this community go around and around. Basically that is my goal to begin with, to help out. I moved up this year full time and now a citizen of Utah. My goal is to help the community and I think serving on the Board would probably be a good way to help. The other applicant who had provided his name is Drake Cherry. He also has experience as having been a Fire Inspector. He would have been available certainly by phone. I think that would have complicated and been very difficult to be able to do that over the phone. Board, how do you feel about Charlie Duvall joining us? Member Shackleford: I vote yes. Member Hightower: Yah, how do we do that? I think that we need a nomination. Treasurer Robbins: I will nominate, motion for Charlie Duvall to be on the Board of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District. Member Hightower: I ll second that. Okay, any other discussion? Call for the vote, all those in favor. Board: Aye Charlie Duvall is now sworn in by District Clerk Adams. Board Officers: We have been without a Chair and after our last meeting I was speaking with our attorneys and was told not to let the Chair position remain vacant for too long. It became very evident to me that we needed, even though we normally take care of these things in January, we needed to get a jump start on it so that we have a fully compliant Board. With that being said, who you see here is who is available to be the Chair. I am asking to remain as the Clerk. It has taken me this far to learn how to do my job and I think I ve got a handle on it. I ve got a lot to learn going forward, but I think my best ability to contribute to the Board is to remain the Clerk.

8 Member Shackleford: I would like to make a motion to nominate Brad Robbins as our new Chairman. Member Duvall: I would like to second that as long as Brad is happy with that. Treasurer Robbins: Yes. Brad Robbins is our new Chairman. We have to fill the Treasurer s position. I will just say what I think is terribly important for the Treasurer and Brad knows this because he has had to drive up here so many times. A fulltime resident up in Duck Creek would be a huge asset to the Treasurer s position. This is my opinion; this is the Clerk s opinion. For many reasons as there are deposits that need to be made upon occasion. There are decisions that need to be made upon occasion and it would be beneficial. Treasurer /Chairman Robbins: I would agree with that. I set it up as best I could being away, but there really needs to be somebody that is closer and really that would leave Member Shackleford or our new member. Bob is our Snow Liaison and that is kind of a job in itself so I would recommend that our new member Charlie Duvall be Treasurer. Member Duvall: I would gladly take that on. What I consider to possibly be a problem is that I have never been the Treasurer. The long and short of it is that I would be happy to do that. I certainly would need Brad and everyone to walk me through it and get me trained. There is a motion on the floor and it has been seconded. Call for the vote. All in favor of Charlie Duvall being the Treasurer. Board: Aye New Business:

9 Turnouts for New Firefighter Mike Ahlstrom: Chief Tuttle: Our new firefighter Mike Ahlstrom is replacing Kurt Madsen. He is a bigger guy so I had to order some turnouts for him and it exceeded my authority as far as dollar amount so I had to bring it in front of the Board. The turnouts that I am ordering for him is going to cost less than $1800. We need them for him and we have it in the budget, but I can only spend $1,000 without Board approval. So, I would like to buy turnouts for Mike Ahlstrom. There is $2,500 remaining in PPE Structure left in that general ledger line. There is a motion to allow Chief Tuttle to make the purchase not to exceed $1,800 by Member Hightower. Motion was seconded by Chairman Robbins. Board: Aye Rescue 70 Winter Storage in Strawberry: Chief Tuttle: I need to find a place for Rescue 70 that is heated and I have done that in Strawberry at their Community Building. We can put a heater in there and the estimate is right around $75 per month. It is going to be a monthly expenditure through the winter months. The summer months we wouldn t need it. There is further discussion on this by Chief Tuttle, the Board and Salli Shackleford. There is a motion to approve Chief Tuttle s request to store Rescue 70 at the Strawberry Community Center during the winter months but not to exceed $100 a month for heating costs by Member Hightower. Motion is seconded by Chairman Robbins. Board: Aye CMFPD Jackets with Insignia:

10 Chief Tuttle: This jacket (shown at meeting) I approached the Board back in November 2014 I got permission to buy these jackets and issue them out to all the volunteers. It was about $2,500 to purchase them with embroidery. I issued these to all the volunteers at the time and as they have left they turn in their turnouts, they turn in their jacket, and they turn in their radios and stuff like that. I have 2 personnel that turned everything in except for their jackets. I have talked with them a couple of times since then and they refuse to turn the jackets back in. I don t really have a problem with that per say, but the problem I have is that they run with another organization and sometimes they wear our jackets. My issue with that is if they do something that could cause us bad press. Chief Tuttle continues to discuss this agenda item with the Board. Cheryl Case: I think your liability is an issue and you might want to follow up on that. I believe wearing the jacket with the Cedar Mountain label on it implies that they are a part of Cedar Mountain Fire Department. That was our original concern and is a possibility. The Board continues their discussion on this agenda item with Chief Tuttle. This is a mute issue right now. If we need to bring it back, we will bring it back as new business Proposed Budget: Members of the Board with the exception of Member Duvall were provided this Budget yesterday. Board Members, what do you want to do as far as this? Do you want to go line by line? Do you just want to go over all? Chairman Robbins: I don t have an issue with it, so I am fine. Member Shackleford: I looked at it last night and I m good with it. I do know that we have to have a public meeting through a hearing. Member Hightower: I was very satisfied with what you have done. It is very thorough. It was pretty much like the one I reviewed last year by Frank. The Board then goes over the 2019 Proposed Budget. There is a motion to approve a tentative budget with the condition that we make a few changes so that all the numbers show by Member Hightower.

11 Motion was seconded by Chairman Robbins. Board: Aye Comments from the Public: Salli Shackleford: I would just like to say that I agree hearing the previous discussion about the fulltime firefighters. Chief Tuttle has brought us a long, long, way from where we were and I think he s to be commended for that. I think one thing that I would like to remind the Board is that when he came up with the idea (the proposal) to bring on the fulltime firefighters it was kind of with the understanding and concern of what kind of a pool he was pulling from, because we are not a metropolitan or large city. We are a very rural mountain community. The idea behind his proposal was, as I recall, to give these young folks an opportunity to come into the business learn and grow with our department and benefit us in that way, with the understanding that they were probably going to move on because there is not the opportunity for growth or promotion here with us. But that doesn t mean that they haven t paid us a great service in the time that they have been here. I just don t want you to lose sight of that benefit and be to focused on retention because I don t know that that s possible in our environment. Frank Gagliardi: Just a suggestion that could be done as part of the previous agenda item is to schedule a public hearing at today s meeting so that you can have it prior to your next Board Meeting. Thank you. I appreciate that. I will need to look at a calendar. We need to have it after 6pm in the evening and our notification period to post that we are going to have a public hearing is a 7 day notice in the paper and posted in the Village. We are going to schedule the Public Hearing for the 2019 Budget on Wednesday October 24 th at 6pm. here at the fire station. Cheryl Case: I would like to thank Casey for all of his efforts and he taught a Stop the Bleed class that I attended and he did a marvelous job, so thank you. Member Hightower: Diane (referring to District Clerk Adams), Lisa Taylor is here from Ponderosa Ranch. I don t want to put you on the spot, but if you have any comments or feedback, which you may have, we certainly would appreciate it. Lisa Taylor: I m good. Closed Session:

12 I see no reason that the Board needs to go into a closed session. Adjournment: Is there a motion to adjourn? There is a motion to adjourn by Chairman Robbins. Motion seconded by Treasurer Duvall. Board: Aye. It is October 13, 2018 at 11:55 am. The Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Board Meeting is adjourned. Minutes Approved by Date Diane M. Adams, District Clerk Signed copy on file at 3620 Mammoth Creek Road.