March 20, 2013
Minutes
Chairman John Boyd called the meeting to order
at 7:05 p.m.
Pledge to the flag was given.
Roll
Call: John Boyd; Michele Graham; Greg
Babbitt; Susan Sikkema; Elizabeth G. Carr; and Carolyn Towsley.
Approval
of Agenda – Elizabeth Carr moved that
the Agenda as presented be approved.
Supported by Greg Babbitt.
Motion carried.
Approval
of Minutes –Michele Graham’s first
name is spelled with one “l”.
Elizabeth Carr moved the minutes be approved as corrected.
Supported by Susan Sikkema.
Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report –Reviewed Profit
and Loss Budget vs Actual and Balance Sheets for Fire Department and First
Responders. Firemen Checking
$4,634.40 – Firemen Fund $917.40 - Independent Bank $14,740.45.
Total Assets $20,292.25 as of March 20, 2013.
Balance left in Fire Department’s checking is not enough to cover
outstanding bills: Binney’s $16.98;
new checks with Isabella Bank as financial institution $155.00; liability
insurance (still being reviewed to see if can get cost lower) $7,950.
Carolyn Towsley moved to transfer $4,000.00 from Independent Bank CD to
Chemical Bank checking to cover outstanding bills.
Greg Babbitt seconded. Carried.
First Responders Checking $13,018.67 as of March 20, 2013.
John Boyd said the reports would be accepted as presented.
Greg Babbitt moved to approve the bills: Fire
Department checks #4715-4741 including bills identified above and IRS tax
withdrawal and First Responders checks #1341-1345 and new check order for
Isabella Bank as financial institution $117.00.
Greg Babbitt seconded. Roll
Call: Susan Sikkema – yea; Michele Graham – yea; Greg Babbitt – yea; Elizabeth
Carr – yea; Carolyn Towsley – yea; and John Boyd – yea.
Motion carried.
Election
of Fire Chief – Marv Bell was the
only person who applied for the position.
Since being unopposed he is elected Fire Chief for the new two years.
Marv was congratulated
Review
Mecosta-Austin Fire Department and First Responder Agreements –
Susan Sikkema moved to keep the agreements in
their current form. Elizabeth Carr
seconded. Carried.
Election
of Fire Board Officers – The Board
was informed that Carolyn Towsley of Austin Township will be stepping down and
John Conforte was elected to serve on the Fire Board representing Austin
Township. His officer duties will
begin in May. A new secretary will
need to be identified by the May meeting.
Old
Business –
Year End
Settlement – Reports were reviewed to
show how the finances were classified for 2012-2013.
Extra expenses (forgotten 6X6 bill of $1,387.01 and a missed repair bill
for $560.00) were not taken into consideration when we authorized the fire
department to purchase short term needs at the last meeting.
The (2) turn out gears bill has not been received and it will be
$2,995.60. Carolyn Towsley made the
motion to move another $3,000.00 from Independent Bank CD to Chemical Bank
checking to cover this expense.
Greg Babbitt seconded. Carried.
After further discussion, the Fire Board agreed with the closing numbers
and John Boyd said a final settlement report will be presented at the May
meeting.
2013-2014 Budget –
FIRE DEPARTMENT
FIRST RESPONDERS
Income
Income
Austin Township
$30,000.00
County Revenue
$12,000.00
Mecosta Township
30,000.00
Interest
25.00
Firemen’s Fund Donations
800.00
Total Income
$12,025.00
Interest
100.00
Misc. Income
100.00
Expense
Donations
1,000,00
Payroll Expenses
$ 6,500.00
Total Income
$62,000.00
Payroll Taxes
550.00
Supplies
450.00
Expense
Medical Expense
50.00
Wages
$25,000,00
Office Supplies
300.00
Payroll Tax
2,000.00
Postage and Freight
75.00
Office supplies
1,000.00
Truck Expense
900.00
Postage and freight
400.00
Fuel
1,000.00
Truck Repair
3,000.00
Other Expenses
200.00
Firefighters’ expense
700.00
Training
500.00
Audit
800.00
Equipment Repair
500.00
Training
2,000.00
New Equipment
1,000.00
Insurance
12,300.00
Total Expense
$12,025.00
Utilities
4,000.00
Equipment Repair
3,000.00
Hall Expense
2,300.00
PR & Prom
1,000.00
Firemen Fund Expenses
800.00
Contingency
2,000.00
New Equipment
500.00
Capital Outlay
1,200.00
Total Expense
$62,000.00
After finalizing the above 2013-14 budget,
everyone agreed that we will run the budget the best we can.
If any unforeseen expenses arise they will be brought to the township
boards for review. Discussion that
followed revealed that several members
of the fire and first responder department put in hours that are not documented
for pay (lawn maintenance, snow removal, repair hours, and various types of
meetings). It was moved my Michele
Graham to accept the 2013-2014 Fire Department and First Responder budgets as
detailed above. Elizabeth Carr
seconded. Carried.
First
Responders SOG Language – Ron Palmer
submitted a rough draft of SOG#4 – Standard Operating Guidelines Personnel.
New language was added to #1. Personnel: “… Members must complete at
least one year of service, as a trained Firefighter,
(completion of at least Firefighter II
or equivalent) before holding an Officer’s position.
Members
shall be Firefighter I certified or have started Firefighter I within two years
of their hire on date.”
Add:
#2.
MEDICAL RESCUSE ONLY MEMBERS:
These members will perform duties only directly related to Medical First
Response. These members will always
have a current Medical license issued by the State of Michigan.
They will be required to have passed the Emergency Vehicle Driving
Course. These members are allowed
to drive only medical rescue vehicles.
They will not be allowed to drive any of the fire apparatuses.
These members shall not be allowed to hold any of the officers’
positions. There shall be only a
maximum of (5) five medical rescue members on the department at any given time.
These (5) members will part of the maximum departmental membership.
Ron said that #2 needed to be added because the
rest of the SOG talked about number of members in the department as being 30.
During discussion some changes were recommended for the wording of the
last two lines in SOG#4 – 2. An
amended version will be presented to the board at the May meeting.
6X6 –
Pump has been installed and is
working. Need to put stops on
valves. Didn’t get done putting
pump in until 10:30 p.m. night before so have not road tested the tanker.
As long as no other problems are detected the tanker will be in service
by grass season.
New
Business –
Fire
Chief’s Report – Marv Bell reported
there were 12 runs since our last meeting.
ID stickers need to purchased and put on our property.
A pager and battery were recently lost and there was no way to identify
ownership. We did get the pager
back and a battery which wasn’t ours was returned to us during the flood
incident. Marv also gave the DNR
Mutual Aid Agreement to John Boyd for his signature for its annual renewal.
The County is going to a county-wide accountability system.
We will need to purchase 20-25 clips and rings which are used to account
for where personnel are during an incident.
This system was recently tested and worked very well.
Safety
Report - Recently participated at a
joint training at Ferris State University.
Many communities were involved:
Mecosta Township, Austin Township, City of Big Rapids, Big Rapids
Township, Morton Township, Wheatland Township, Village of Morley, City of Grand
Rapids Hazmat, Mecosta County Sheriff, and Ferris State University.
This training worked on accountability and communication.
The accountability system mention above was used in this training.
Here at the Mecosta-Austin Fire Department a meeting was held on driver
responsibility both with personal and department vehicles.
Maintenance Report – Steve Cook
reported everything is working. The
fire department does want to look into obtaining some tools to have for
maintenance at the fire hall.
MFR
Report –Runs:
27 calls since our last meeting.
MFR classes are scheduled to start in April.
There are five employees interested in taking the classes.
It will cost about $500 per person.
Brief
Public Comment – Michele Graham told
us that Scott Schroeder from the county’s Emergency Management Department said
we did a great job at the flood incident; however, some additional precedence on
the process needs to be reviewed.
Announcements – John Boyd
congratulated Marv Bell for his election as Fire Chief, welcomed John Conforte
to the Fire Board, and thanked Carolyn Towsley for ther service she has given to
the Fire Board.
The next meeting will be MAY 15, 2013 at 7:00
p.m. at the Fire Hall.
Adjournment - At 9:15 p.m. John Boyd
declared the meeting closed.
Submitted by,
Carolyn Towsley, Secretary