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03/18/2008 Regular Meeting 1. Call to Order (;:;h I/!): /?~ Fire Protection Area No.1 j;)": ' " , ,',: Regular MeetinglPublic Heari~nV I 18 March 2008 - 7:30 pm #4r Bayside Fire Station !?, .... 1 ~ <'008 '~ / '-_, J Minutes The meeting was convened by the Chair at 7:46 pm. '-. 2. Roll Call Members present were Cliff Davidson, Mike Dolph and Jim Picket. Excused Member was Rebecca Nelson and Absent Member was Greg Spalinger. Mary Barber, ElF Department, was recording secretary. 3. Approval of Agenda It was Moved, C. Davidson and Seconded to approve the Agenda with the removal of Item B. There was a unanimous affirmative voice vote. 4. Approval of Minutes It was Moved, C. Davidson and Seconded to approve the Minutes from the Regular Meeting of February 19,2008. There was a unanimous affirmative voice vote. 4. Acknowledgement of Financial Report It was Moved, J. Pickett and Seconded to acknowledge receipt of the Financial Report. There was a unanimous affirmative voice vote. 5. Visitor Comment None. 6. Staff Reports A. Chiefs Report Chief Himes stated he has two grants that he's working on. The first one is a Rural Interoperability Communications Grant and Bayside Fire Departments portion of the grant for radio upgrades would be approximately $70K. He's still working on it and it should be submitted by the end of the month and should know whether or not it's awarded by June. The other grant he's working on is the FEMA Assistant Firefighter's grant that has been applied for and received for several years. This grant will allow the Fire Departments to purchase new Turnouts. He contacted Womens Bay Fire Dept. and the City to ask them if they would like to participate, which they both stated they would. Right now he's looking at purchasing 40 sets for Bayside Fire Dept. 20 sets for Womens Bay and 15 sets for the City. He stated that both Womens Bay and the City said they would participate with their 5% matching. He asked if there was no objection from the Board he would continue to work on the grant. Chair Dolph asked for consensus of the Board. C. Davidson asked for clarification on the radio upgrade. N :\EF\Service Districts\Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board\Minutes\Mtg Minutes 2008\Draft Minutes 18 March 08 Page 1 of 5 Chief Himes stated that what it does is upgrade all of the radios to digital to include AES inscription which the City uses, so the Fire Departments can be compatible and program into the City frequency and this includes Bayside, Womens Bay, Chiniak EMS and the Hospital. Consensus of the Board was to have Chief Himes continue with pursuing the Grant. Chief Himes told the Board that while he was in Juneau HB200 was a big topic. It was to protect firefighters from fire inhalation cancers. The Alaska Professional Firefighter's Association was pushing this bill, but they weren't in support of including volunteer firefighters. He said the bill left out a lot of entities from being covered. He said without it being for a broader group the majority wasn't in favor of it. He believes the Bill died on the floor, but wasn't certain. Chief Himes stated he spoke to Senator Stevens about their CIP list and he seemed very interested, asked how much money was needed and Chief Himes told him whatever he can get. Chief Himes told the Board the other thing he's happy to report on is that the Fire Departments are working well together. They are putting a communication plan together that he hopes will be in affect Monday. The radio system upgrade is part of the plan, which is part of the Grant that he's applying for. In the future the Fire Departments are going to take another look at how the vehicles are designated. Different Departments have different designations for different vehicles, so they're going to take a look at that and reorganize so that it's better and user friendly. C. Davidson asked for an example of different designations. Chief Himes said the City's ladder they call it a truck, the USCG's ladder they call a tower and Bayside's designation for a ladder is a ladder. He also wanted to let the Board know that there's a recruit class going on and have started another EMT class. B. Borough Staff Report M. Barber asked if the Board would like to keep the Meeting binders on hand and she would supply a packet to each Board Member at each meeting. Discussion followed and it was decided that the binders would stay at Bayside, which the Board could take home with them or leave them for the next meeting. Chair Dolph said in addition he would like to see M. Barber put the minutes together for each quarter for the binders. He said he would work with M. Barber and see what they could come up with. C. Chair Report Chair Dolph stated the reason he suggested striking the Architectural update from the Agenda is that he checked with K. Smith's office today and there were some preliminary site sketches that T. Yorba has been working on, they're running into some difficulty. T. Yorba has been talking with the surveyors and apparently in previous site surveys, in 1999 he believes and again in 2005 or 2006 there are differences in the topographical representation of the two surveys. Enough difference that it's making it difficult for T. Y orba to develop the projections of how the addition is accurately going to look. T. Y orba is trying to get past this and as soon as he does he'll have some refined sketches, he has some things but there are just a lot of questions about the site right now. T. Yorba will be in town April 2, 3,4 & 51\ but the Board's work session is April 1 st. He asked K. Smith that if T. Yorba has anything for the Board to review and discuss at the work session to send it electronically and if T. Yorba has time while in town to sit down with as many of the Board and staff to go over where he is it would be great. 7. Old Business Chief Himes said the apartment lease needs to be accepted. The Board approved it, but it needs to be N:\EF\Service Districts\Fire Protection Area No. l Board\Minutes\Mtg Minutes 2008\Draft Minutes 18 March 08 Page 2 of 5 accepted by the KIB. Chair Dolph said that he would check with L. Whiddon to see where it is, he said it was turned over last May. C. Davidson asked where we are with the removal of the Cossett house. Chair Dolph stated it is to be moved or demolished by April 15, 2008. 8. New Business A. Motion: Approval of 2009 Annual Budget & Work Plan. Chair Dolph asked for a motion for approval of the 2009 Annual Budget & Work Plan. It was Moved, J. Pickett and seconded to approve the 2009 Annual Budget & Work Plan. Chair Dolph opened the meeting to Public Hearing. 10. Public Comments Chair Dolph stated for the record there wasn't any public in attendance. Chair Dolph stated C. Davidson is vacating his seat on the Board to make a public comment. C. Davidson said he would like to thank the Board and Chief Himes for the protection they provide in the area. He also said that it's very important to educate the population, so they know what they're getting for their money and how we help try to save them on insurance and that we're trying very hard to find new homes for our equipment. Chair Dolph hearing no other public comments closed the Public Hearing and opened the Regular Meeting up for Board Comments. C. Davidson stated he would certainly support this budget. Chair Dolph said he thinks the Board has a sound budget. He feels Chief Himes has done a stellar job at putting things together once again, which makes it pretty easy for the Board's consideration. Chair Dolph opened up the meeting for Board comments on any particular line items they wanted to discuss. C. Davidson asked where the personal property figures were derived from. M. Barber explained that any business in the fire protection area pays taxes on their personal property that is used in the business and a portion of those monies is allocated to the fire protection area. Chief Himes pointed out that in the budget under the line item for State Revenue Sharing there aren't any monies allocated in the Budget, but the potential is there to receive funds. Chair Dolph said that if more revenue comes in at some point in time the Board could redistribute those funds to other areas of need. C. Davidson asked what the $13K in contingencies was going to be used for. Chief Himes said that contingencies are primarily used to balance the budget. C. Davidson asked if at the end of the fiscal year there is money left in the contingency line can it be moved. Chief Himes said it goes to the fund balance. C. Davidson asked how much money can remain in the fund balance. Chief Himes said basically as much as you want, for instance it was up to $2 or $3M, but the money is earmarked for certain things that need to be purchased. C. Davidson asked Chief Himes how many times since getting the new equipment have they been used in a response. Chief Himes said he would have to go back and look, but he would guess a couple dozen since November. C. Davidson stated that by purchasing the new equipment it helps to save N:\EF\Service Districts\Fire Protection Area No.1 Board\Minutes\Mtg Minutes 2008\Draft Minutes 18 March 08 Page 3 of 5 the constituents on home insurance. C. Davidson stated the salaries included the Chief, and asked if it also included volunteers. Chief Himes said it is strictly the Chief's. C. Davidson asked if the retirement is included in the salary. Chief Himes stated the number came from the KIB Finance Dept. and it was expected to go down. Chair Dolph asked if there were any desired amendments to the original motion. In hearing none the Chair called for a vote on the main motion which is to approve the 2009 Annual Budget & Work Plan and thereby direct it on to the Borough for Assembly consideration. Motion carried with a roll call vote. 11. Visitor Comments None. 12. Board Comments J. Pickett thanked Chief Himes for all his hard work. Real glad to hear the Chief's meetings are going well and that everyone is getting on the same channel of communication. C. Davidson also thanked Chief Himes and he is pleased to see us making giant strides in progress as far as cooperation in inner workings and making things go together. Chair Dolph echoed the comments. He said an item of thought on the construction project before the Board, in the recent reflections from T. Y orba what the project looks like to him in its original format would be in the cost range of $1.5 to $1.8M and it's a known fact that the Board is going to have to scale down. He said he would entertain in the upcoming meetings the thought of approaching the KIB for a low interest loan from the Shuyak fund to get this project done now completely before the cost continue to rise. He would much rather as a Board or district, be facing a low interest loan repay than facing the cost of trying to finish this project over a ten year period. 13. Meeting Schedule Chair Dolph scheduled a work session for April 1, 2008 and the next Regular Meeting for April 15, 2008. 14. Adjournment There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm. Submitted By: Date: -4l~~ N :\EF\Service Districts\Fire Protection Area No. 1 Board\Minutes\Mtg Minutes 2008\Draft Minutes 18 March 08 Page 4 of 5 Approved By: M~~~ Fire Protection Area # 1 Date: Jho/( r S- 2- 06> 0- \ N:\EF\Service Districts\Fire Protection Area No.1 Board\Minutes\Mtg Minutes 2008\Draft Minutes 18 March 08 Page 5 of 5