White River Township Fire Protection District
Board Meeting Minutes
April 6, 1999  ~  7:00 p.m.

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District Members Present:  Butch Sutton, Chuck Shufflebarger, Bill Patterson, and Jon Raker. 

District Employees Present:  Mike Dutton and Kim Clawson. 

Corporation Members Present:  Scott Alexander. 

Others Present: Joe Pagano, Brian Griffith, Brian Bosma and Eric Reedy.

1.        Meeting called to order at 7:06 p.m. 

2.        Minutes from meeting held 03/10/99 read.  Motion made by Bill and 2nd by Jon to approve minutes as written.  All in favor and motion carries. 

3.        Eric Reedy gave financial report.

Capital Projects Fund                          $   819,011.40    Key Bank

                                                                       21,163.02    NBD

Cumulative Fund                                         63,757.00

Debt Fund                                                    18,690.95

General Fund                                             101,928.00

TOTAL                                                                  $ 1,024,550.37 

4.        Statute states that the 2000 budget must be adopted by September 2.  Eric advised that we should have an estimate prepared and finalized during June. 

5.        No new business on purchase/delivery of the Quint. 

6.        Chief Dutton spoke with Dave Julian who was the architect for station 52.  Mr. Julian re-directed him to Alt & Witzig engineering, who will be submitting a bid to Chief Dutton tomorrow. 

7.        No new business on purchase/delivery of the turnout gear. 

8.        Chief Dutton requested that the Board approve refurbishing the current Tornado Siren at station 51.  This would be an extremely worthwhile cause for many reasons.  The only cost would be to purchase a receiver unit.  This unit would receive a signal when Greenwood activated their sirens and, in turn,  would activate ours as well.  Motion made by Bill and 2nd by Chuck to spend $1368 out of the General Fund for this project which would potentially be reimbursed by the Cumulative Fund.  All in favor and motion carries. 

9.        Chief Dutton is trying to arrange a meeting between himself and our neighbors to the West regarding their tie-in to the Smith Valley sewer project.  It may be possible for us to tie-in with them as well and solve all septic problems at Station 51. 

10.     Chief Dutton originally signed the contract with PMT Ambulance.  Now that he is a District Employee, that contract is no longer valid and it is up to the District Board to review and/or renew that contract.  Brian Bosma forwarded a revised copy of the contract to Brian Griffith who will forward it to the owners of the company.  Scott Alexander stated that he would like to review the finalized copy of the contract before it is signed by both parties as it potentially affects the Corporation.  

11.     Chief Dutton and Butch Sutton met with Jeff Stainfield of the Jones & Associates Insurance Company (E.S.I.P.).  They have proposed to begin handling our insurance instead of Maximum Benefits.  Mr. Stainfield owns majroity share of this company and is trying to focus on fire departments and municipalities.  They have excellent programs such as ISO, Driver Training, etc.  Motion made by Chuck and 2nd by Bill to change all insurance matters to Jones And Associates.  All in favor and motion carries. 

12.     Chief Dutton discussed our current standing in the hiring process and distributed copies of the time line and qualifications for each position. 

13.     Chief Dutton has been invited by White River Township Trustee Dan Maple to attend a meeting at the White River Library on April 10.  The Trustee and his advisory board will be in attendance to discuss various items, including the proposed Government Center. 

14.     Discussion on the Seniority portion of the proposed policy manual.  Jon spoke with Paul and proposes that the Battalion Chiefs be given 8 years seniority each, as that is the minimum level of experience that we are requiring.  Chuck stated that he didn’t agree and that this much seniority will cause a scheduling problem when the employees take vacation time.  [Currently, eight year shift employees will receive 168 hours (3 wks) of vacation.]  On page ten of the policy manual, under seniority, the following changes were suggested:

-          Remove section (B), in its entirety.

-          Add a new section (B) to read:  “Unless otherwise specifically designated by the District, seniority and benefits shall be based on the employee’s original Full Time hire date with the District.” 

Jon made motion that the seniority of Battalion Chiefs be based on their hire date with the District and be based on how they finish in the process.  2nd by Bill.  All in favor and motion carries. 

     Jon also made motion that the three Battalion Chiefs receive vacation days equivalent to eight years of service based on the      minimum requirements set for hiring.  2nd by Butch.  2 for – 2 against.  Tabled until  next meeting. 

    Butch stated that his only concern with this subject is that we have been discussing the policy for all District employees for
    at  least six months and it this particular subject has not been brought up for discussion until now. 

15.     Motion made by bill and 2nd by Chuck to establish, in our Safety Board document, a Deputy Chief position as a member of upper level policy making staff as our second level policy making position. The Battalion Chief positions will be permanent and subject to interpretation of rules of the Safety Board.  All in favor and motion carries. 

16.     Item 15 will cause certain necessary changes be made to the salary schedule.  Eric Reedy will make these and bring to the next meeting. 

17.     Chief Dutton stated that with his appointment to the District, he was removed as the 5th Board Member of the Corporation.  Recent elections have placed the following people in office:

                        President – Scott Alexander

V.President – Mike Hoffman

Secretary – Jeremy Pell

Treasurer – Scott Cassin

Member – Kevin Skipper 

18.     Brian Bosma advised that there are multiple interpretations of the various laws relating to volunteer firefighter work schedules.  He is researching these in order to provide us an opinion. 

19.      Butch stated that after a recent review of Roberts Rules of Order, he noted that a motion  is not  necessary when meetings of this nature are adjourned (as we have done in the past).  

20.     No further new business.  Next meeting set for May 6, 7:00 p.m., station 51.  Meeting adjourned at 10:18 p.m.