White River Township Fire Protection District

 

Pre-Meeting Report for May 4, 2004

 

Compiled April 30, 2004

 

 

 

  1. The long term Strategic Plan is taking longer than we anticipated as it is a fairly complicated process.  We now plan to have the draft ready for the June meeting (not May as originally expected).

 

  1. The new Engine 51 is finally in the state of Indiana!  It is currently at Stoops Freightliner getting some last-minute work done to it.  It will then go to TKO Graphics in Avon for striping and lettering before finally coming here to be put in service.  Myself and Casey Arkins met with the Stoops/American La France representatives last week and negotiated the final settlement for the penalty clause.  After going back and forth on the issue, it was found that both Stoops and American LaFrance share the blame for the lateness of the truck (now over 323 days late as of today).  After a debate between the two companies, we will be due the full amount of $100 per calendar day which will terminate upon the truck’s arrival at our station.  Stoops will simply deduct the amount from the total due upon invoicing.  (It’s been so long I can’t remember what the original contract amount was for – I’ll have to look it up).

 

  1. The career hiring process is still on schedule, with the written exam coming up on May 8th.  After the CPAT (physical agility test), 34 candidates remained in the process.  15 will test for Engineer, 6 will test for Lieutenant, and the rest will test for both.

 

  1. Chief Tibbetts assumed complete control of the receptionist hiring process after the first round of interviews was completed.  He then conducted 2nd phase oral interviews on April 22.  He has decided on the final candidate and will share his recommendation to the District board at the May meeting.  It is our goal to have this person start on May 24.

 

  1. The 2003 Fire Loan Projects are proceeding on schedule.  The following is an update on current and upcoming projects. 

 

    1. New computers are installed and running smoothly.  This sounds like a simple thing, but in reality it took several LONG weeks with several people working on different phases of it.  All of the old computers were sold and have been removed.

 

    1. Chief Tibbetts has assumed full control of the both the Station 52 remodel project and the new Station 51 project.  He has been meeting with the architects over the past month.  He will report an update at the May meeting.

 

    1. Chief Young has spent that past few weeks researching other companies that do the work that we are looking to do with the radio towers and found that there was only one other company in Indiana (South Bend).  This company would then farm the project out to different contractors, which is not the ideal situation.  The rest of the vendors were out of state and charged exorbitant charges to do work in Indiana.  We then re-contacted Wireless Networking Solutions and they came down on their price to $24,999 (to get under the Request to Bid requirement).  Tricia Leminger from Brian Bosma’s office said that they could be considered a single-source supplier and the contract could be awarded based on this information.  Chief Tibbetts will have more information at the May Meeting.

 

  1. We need to work out some of the logistics on the hiring of the part-time firefighters from the volunteer corporation.  The main item to consider is how to actually hire them.  This will be an agenda item for the May Meeting.

 

  1. Lieutenant Bruce Alexander has resigned from the District in order to further pursue his medical career (as a future physician).  This means we will need to hire an additional Lieutenant out of this current process and also means that this position will go open until December.  (We will attempt to fill as many shifts as the budget will warrant until then as to not deplete our staffing level)

 

  1. Station 51 had a significant sewer leak in the main line connecting to the city’s force main.  This has since been repaired and inspected by the City of Greenwood with no further action required.

 

  1. I will be out of town the week of May 3rd so I apologize in advance for missing the May meeting.  I will have several documents prepared for you in my absence, including year-to-date financial reports and an initial draft of the 2005 budget.

 

  1. The minutes from the April 5th District meeting are available for viewing on our website, or by following this link: http://www.wrtfd.org/downloads/minutes/fpdb/2004/0405.htm

 

  1. The agenda for the May 4th District meeting is available for viewing on our website, or by following this link:  http://www.wrtfd.org/downloads/agendas/fpdb/2004/0504.htm

 

  1. This agenda will be updated as needed.  Copies will be available the night of the meeting.  The April newsletter is available for viewing on our website, or by following this link:  http://www.wrtfd.org/downloads/newsletters/2004/Apr04news.doc