Minutes
September 25, 2012
September 19, 2012 meeting was postponed to
September 25, 2012 due to a lack of a quorum.
Chairman John Boyd called the September 25
meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Pledge to the flag was given.
Roll
Call: John Boyd; Greg Babbitt; Phil
Hanford; Elizabeth G. Carr; and Carolyn Towsley.
Absent Arturo Pierera.
Approval
of Agenda – Phil Hanford moved that
the Agenda be approved as presented.
Supported by Greg Babbitt.
Motion carried.
Approval
of Minutes – Phil Hanford moved the
minutes be approved as presented.
Supported by Elizabeth Carr. Motion
carried.
Treasurer’s Report –Elizabeth Carr
noted that three of the firemen’s expense accounts are over budget at this time
(336-728 Postage and Freight; 336-735 Firefighers’ Expense; and 336-940 Hall
expense). The cost incurred for the
burners should come out of Capital Outlay and that will change the budget cost
of a couple of the above mentioned accounts.
Firemen Checking $45,656.81– Firemen Fund $921.23
Independent Bank $14,727.45.
Total Assets $61,305.49. As of
September 19, 2012. First
Responders Checking $10,894.25 as of
September 19, 2012. John Boyd said
the report would be accepted as presented.
Greg Babbitt moved
to approve the bills: Fire Department checks #4637-4660 and EFT Payment and
tonight’s bills to Central Michigan Mechanical $395.00 for the labor cost of
installing the burners, Frontier (phone and internet) $114.64 and Douglas Safety
for SCBA $145.00 and First Responders checks #1310-1313.
Phil Hanford seconded. Roll
Call: Greg Babbitt – yea; Phil Hanford – yea; Elizabeth Carr – yea; Carolyn
Towsley – yea; and John Boyd – yea.
Motion carried.
Old
Business –
New 6X6
– Still out of commission.
Pump parts will cost about $1,800 to fix it.
Palmers will do the repair with no labor costs.
Phil Hanford moved that we spend up to $2,000 to fix pump.
Greg Babbitt seconded. Roll
Call: Greg Babbitt – yea; Phil Hanford – yea; Elizabeth Carr – yea; Carolyn
Towsley – yea; and John Boyd – yea.
Motion carried.
.
Parking
Lot – One bid to concrete the parking
lot was obtained and after reviewing the amount it would cost to do only
one-fourth of the parking lot ($15,000) this issue will deterred to a later
time.
Commercial Site Visits –Alan Brennan
informed the Board that there are 37+ farms that will need to be visited.
10-15 of those visits will involve 30 hours with two people.
The board asked Alan to bring a rough guess on total hours that the
visits will take and to bring it to the Board’s November meeting.
The Fire Department should add this to their budget and split the visits
over a three year period and have these estimates for the Joint Townships
meeting in January.
Vent –
No bids have been provided for the
cost. One verbal bid was $750.
Contact will be made with some other local contractors.
This issue needs to be completed before the first snow fall.
Phil Hanford moved to authorize John Boyd and Marv Bell to approve a bid
spending up to $1,000 to repair the ridge cap and valley so as to get work done
soon. The bidding period will end
October 5, 2012. Greg Babbitt
seconded. Roll Call: Greg Babbitt –
yea; Phil Hanford – yea; Elizabeth Carr – yea; Carolyn Towsley – yea; and John
Boyd – yea. Motion carried.
Compliancy Chart – NIMS Training –
Scott Schroeder is the new Emergency Management Coordinator and will not be
working out of the Sherriff’s Department.
He will be putting together a flow chart of requirements for the
completion of training. NIMS (Incident Command System) 300 and 400 training will
be on October 25-26 and November 8-9 respectively in Big Rapids.
Both classes need to be taken in order to take the test and to be
certified.
Providing Water Standard – Nothing
has been done. More research needs
to be done on this to determine appropriate legalities.
New
Business –
Crystal
Flash – Electronic Payment – Crystal
Flash is offering a 1% discount for customers who will switch over to an
electronic payment to pay monthly bills.
The Board felt that 1% will not be worth the uncertainty of how much
would be deducted monthly from the checking account.
The issue died.
Frontier
Visa Prepaid Card – As part of their
promotion after we signed up to use their service a $250 prepaid Visa card was
received. The board decided to have
it applied to the Frontier account as a credit.
Elizabeth Carr will take care of this.
Mutual
Aid Agreement with Morton Township –
Alan Brennan contacted John Shipman of ISO.
Mr. Shipman said that if Morton Township gets a rating that is equal to
7A or less, those living 5 road miles from their station will receive the Austin
Township rating of 7. Even if
Morton Township was to receive a better rating, those in Austin Township still
receive the Mecosta-Austin Fire Department’s rating of 7 (within 5 road miles).
Fire
Board Future – Carolyn Towsley said
that the November Fire Board meeting needs to be changed due to a possible
change in Township officers after the November election.
Since the meeting in November is on the 21st and newly elected
township officers are sworn in on November 20, we need to change the November
meeting date. The date was changed
to Wednesday, November 7, 2012.
Fire
Chief’s Report – Marv Bell reported
the heaters are up and working. New
batteries were purchased for the firemen’s radios and they are working much
better (the old batteries were 5 years old).
Four more need to be purchased for the rescuers’ radios.
Marv asked that the old radios and headsets be donated to the water
rescue team. They will not
interfere with the new radios, but will allow better shore to base
communication. The Board felt this
was a good use for the old radios and headsets.
There were 14 fire runs since last meeting.
One was responded to three times in Morton Township and another was a
mock disaster with Trans Canada.
One employee has not passed the firefighters test twice and will possibly be
trying again. If they do not
register to take the test by January or fails it again by April they will no
longer be with the fire department.
Safety
Report - Alan Brennan reported there
were no injuries. Kyle Vredenburg
and Charlie Welch have completed pump training and drivers training and are
authorized to operate engines/tanker and all other equipment.
SCBA training and victim removal has been completed and Firefighter 1 & 2
classes start October 4.
Maintenance Report – Steve Cook
reported Engines 3-12 and 3-11 pump tests have been completed and passed.
Engine 3-11 will require power steering fluid flush and a new pump cap.
A brake canister was replaced on Engine 3-12.
Prices for a seal and actuator for PTO on Engine 3-11 were requested.
It turns out that this is a complicated repair and needs to be done
professionally. $763 was a quote from
West Shore Fire Company. Phil
Hanford moved to spend $763 and have West Shore Fire Company install the part.
Greg Babbitt seconded. Roll
Call: Greg Babbitt – yea; Phil Hanford – yea; Elizabeth Carr – yea; Carolyn
Towsley – yea; and John Boyd – yea.
Motion carried.
MFR
Report –Runs:
July 15; August 7; and September 10 to date.
County is currently using a fourth ambulance about 3 days a week, but
will be putting it into use full time.
This will bring down the amount of funds our First Responders receive
from the county.
Brief
Public Comment – None.
Announcements – Pig Roast will be
October 13 from 12-4 at the Fire Hall.
Correspondence – None.
The next meeting will be NOVEMBER 7, 2012 at
7:00 p.m. at the Fire Hall.
Adjournment - At 8:40 p.m. John Boyd
declared the meeting closed.
Submitted by,
Carolyn Towsley, Secretary