White River Township Fire Protection District Board Meeting Minutes

 

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

 

Meeting called to order by Butch Sutton at 7 P.M.

 

Present:

 

District Board Members present:

Paul Kite

Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger

Butch Sutton

Brian Bosma

Jon Raker

Jim Dodson

 

District Employees Present:

Chief Jeff Wilson

Chief Mike Tibbetts

Chief Carey Slauter

Chief Joel Thacker

Chief Scott Cassin

Chief Jim Engmark

Captain Joe Settles

Lt. Eric Funkhouser

Lt. Jeff Smith

Jackie Emmons

Tony Slusher

Josh Justice

Tim Smith

 

Union President Present:

Lt Mark Hart

 

Fire Department Members Present:

Darryl Slevin

Scott Alexander

Eric Doyle

Jason Smith

Mike Hoffman

 

Others Present:

Dudley Senefeld

Scott Senefeld

Steve Dyson

 

  1. Defer discussing the minutes from the November 4, 2004 meeting to the January 2005 meeting.
  2. Chief Cassin presented the balance sheet. We have 1.3 million in the bank.  January through November shows where we are in each category.
  3. Building maintenance and vehicle maintenance are under funded.  The Volunteer  and Corporation funding is way over.
  4. We are 19 thousand over for workmen’s compensation.
  5. Steve Dyson passed out the budget report we are shifting money from capital outlays to the Other Services and Charges category and it needs to be approved.  Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger made the motion and Jon Raker second the resolution.
  6. The last 2 pages of the pack shows the last 2 years of budget and the numbers were adjusted for 2005.  There were no more questions on the finances.
  7. Regarding the Reserve Division Brian Bosma emailed to all of the board members. 
    1. Chief Scott Cassin and Chief Mike Tibbetts are proposing to create an unincorporated division to fight fires as volunteers. 
    2. We can draft the articles but do not have to file them and they can be signed by any charter member. 
    3. The statute for the volunteers is they have to belong to the volunteer fire department, but nothing requires that it be incorporated. 
    4. It will be incorporated and we will invite people to participate in the reserve division, we do not have to file it anyplace. 
    5. The firefighters will be employed directly by the district, each member will receive a certificate of membership that says the agreement to provide the services and they have to sign a release.  This is done so they do not make a claim for retirement or we can let them go if necessary if they are volunteers. 
    6. The Association will not have to file taxes, have an annual meeting, or have a board, because it is an association and is very flexible. 
    7. The person is only a member if Chief Mike Tibbetts approves the membership. 
    8. We have to let all races and sexes in the membership, which is common sense. 
    9. The employees will have no rights, so they can’t argue at a hearing etc.  We are not required to give them rights however we can if we want to. 
    10. Brian Bosma anticipates we will do this before the year 2005 or shortly after 2005. 
    11. We will start giving certificates of membership and dissolve the existing corporation. 
    12. Mike Hoffman needs help to dissolve the existing corporation. 
    13. Brian Bosma said Trish Leminger could file the paperwork and it will be simple, but there has to be a meeting. 
    14. Mike Hoffman said the audits are all up to date.
  8. Butch Sutton said financially the only issue is the phone bills and such that were on top of the contract. 
    1. The asset is one bank account with payroll money only in it.
    2. Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger asked is the money accounted for in the budget, there are no issues with taking this on it can be authorized by Chief Scott Cassin to move it to contract and get it out of the way.
    3. We need to leave the money under reimbursable expenses.
    4. Scott Alexander said he has been asked a lot of questions about what he put together which was a proposed transition plan to the new division

                                                              i.      pay issues

                                                            ii.      discipline policy

                                                          iii.      outstanding concerns – Brian Bosma said should be cleared up tonight

                                                           iv.      job descriptions

                                                             v.      evaluations

                                                           vi.      education dollars

                                                         vii.      clothing allowance

  1. Chief Mike Tibbetts, Chief Scott Cassin, and Lt. Mark Hart will get together to have a meeting and then the board can make a final decision. 
    1. Brian Bosma suggested we keep expenses to a minimum until the end of the year.
    2. Jon Raker asks are there details in the agreement that will be addressed at that meeting.
    3. Scott Alexander said these things will be addressed in the policy manual and it will state what is or is not there
    4. If the January meeting of the board is within the 1st pay period, we need to sign up all of the 14 people within 3 days. 
    5. Yes they do need to fill out new w 4’s.
    6. Butch Sutton and Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger need to attend the meeting or Jim Dodson and Paul Kite or even Jon Raker.
  2. Scott Alexander signed the agreement for article of association
    1. Butch Sutton made a motion Jon Raker second the motion to approve the association
  3. Butch Sutton requested that the board approve the budget overage on the fire contract line item.  This line item was over budget due to the increased expenses incurred during the full-time hiring process.  Additionally, the line item titled “Reimbursable Expenses” includes items paid by the district on behalf of the corporation.  This amount should be approved also.  The motion was approved by Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger and second by Paul Kite.
  4. Regarding the station 52 room addition, Chief Scott Cassin asked Scott Senefeld to attend the meeting tonight to catch us up on the status of this project.
    1. Scott Senefeld said the budget on the project is close and they have reworked the square footage since the last meeting.
    2. They set a tentative schedule in place and want to make sure that we as a board have all our questions answered.
    3. Chief Scott Cassin said we are ready to get the project started.
    4. Scott Senefeld said we will bid in the spring quarter and want to get it done before April 1, 2005. 
    5. Scott Senefeld said the building committee will be the construction manager and one person in that group will be the chairman.  Brian Bosma strongly urges that it must be a professional person to be the construction manager and should be separate from the design team (building committee).
    6. Scott Senefeld said their design firm spends as much time in the field as it does on designs.
    7. If we use a general contractor it makes the cost more, but then we do not have to worry about scheduling as we would with separate contractors.
    8. Dudley Senefeld said we can bid it out both ways.
    9. We will have another meeting to deal with the projects if needed.
    10. The board approved putting the bid package together,
  5. Regarding Heron Ridge, Scott Senefeld has a meeting with Trish Leminger December 8, 2004.  They meet with the homeowners association board to determine their response to the antenna placement on the site.
  6. The safety board document changes need to be made and it needs to include part time, job descriptions, promotion criteria.   Brian Bosma has a concern we have extraneous non approved disciplinary matters. The benefits package and disciplinary package needs to be standard.  We need to make one standard and say it supersedes all others, the only policy we have is on the website on the secured employee part of the website.  The one Butch Sutton read was printed off of the website and the link has been disconnected per Trish Leminger a couple of months ago per Chief Scott Cassin.
  7. What kind of priority was put on doing evaluations, Butch Sutton wants a report on that by the next meeting.
  8. Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger asks when the policies are renewed; we need to date the policy and keep that current and the two documents need to match.  It got brought over from 1995 and the safety document has appeared since then.
  9. Merit ranks for captains – Captain Joe Settles and Captain Casey Arkins need to make their permanent rank as of Dec 1 2004.  The motion was made 1st by Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger and then second by Jon Raker.
  10. The training chief vehicle.  Jim Dodson said Joel Thacker is a safety officer on calls and has to respond and he needs a vehicle.  Jim Dodson 1st the motion and Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger 2nd the motion to proceed with the purchase of an additional vehicle.  This will put the total number of staff vehicles at 9 including the two pool cars.  This purchase will put the department’s small vehicle rotation schedule back on track.  We will be selling the two 1999 Tahoes as part of this year’s cycling.
  11. The grass rig project total amount is $54,134.09 with all the equipment.  It will be a Ford which is cheaper than the Chevy and we approved it before.  We need it for, among other uses, the railroad tracks because the brake boxes get hot and ignite the grasses and this is necessary.  We had three quotes within seven days.  The motion was then approved for the grass rig 1st by Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger and 2nd by Paul Kite.
  12. The 2005 meeting schedule is the 1st Tuesday of each month, except for January 6, 2005.  August and October 2005 will be discussed later in the year 2005.
  13. The outstanding issue is a contract for sick leave, etc from a part time employee.  Butch Sutton suggests the board deny this request since we are putting together a package now.  This was approved by motion Paul Kite 1st Jim Dodson 2nd.
  14. Station 51, Heron Ridge the current status is the escrow closing.  Platt was approved in the boards name so on paper the board owns the property.  Now we have 120 days to get all the approvals based upon the contract.  What are all the approvals? 
    1. The home owners association has to approve the aerial antenna and Butch Sutton is upset with the communications.  The meeting is set for December 8, 2004 and Butch Sutton said if it becomes too much of an issue we will have to walk and unwrap this thing. 
    2. What can we get out of the property?  It is worth a good value and we can get our money back if needed.  The meeting is at 3 pm at the White River library with the home owners association. 
    3. If we can not get approval of the antenna we have to back out and they will not discuss the antenna, they are discussing landscaping and everything else to avoid discussing the antenna. 
    4. Chief Scott Cassin said we have to have the antenna computer wise and it will be higher than 100 feet. 
    5. We may go to the homeowner’s association annual meeting and appeal to the entire association.
    6. Dr. Chuck Shufflebarger said lets not threaten unless we are all in agreement to walk. 
    7. We have to let Trish Leminger know where we stand on this before she meets with the association. 
  15. Butch has another issue with this thing the loan provision we are already over on cost with the estimates for a controlled project and we need to pare down.  We are over 2 million.
    1. Butch Sutton just got that tonight.  Brian Bosma said Trish Leminger completed that on Thanksgiving morning before she went on vacation. 
    2. Chief Cassin stated that the building is being built based on the needs of the department, both now and into the future.  The building is being designed around a total capacity of 12 personnel on-duty at once.
    3. Chief Cassin also stated that projects of this magnitude are in the 2 to 2.5 Million dollar range as evidence by a national study as well as similar sized local projects in the works now (Perry Twp and Bargersville).  We have to be prepared to expect the same.
  16. Chief Mike Tibbetts went to the I69 project again and they have triangles for the interchange to go through our station here at Smith Valley and that would take us out, part of the school and the speedway. 

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm.