White River Township Fire Protection District

Pre-Meeting Report for January 10, 2006

Compiled January 7, 2006

Now that 2005 is in the books, we ended up finishing the year under budget in all four major budget categories (Personal Services, Supplies, Other Services and Charges, and Capital Outlays) of the General Fund. Couple this with additional revenues of over $120,000, and we essentially spent $348,418 less than we received overall.

The Station 51 Building Team has continued to meet over the past month in an attempt to finalize the plans for the building. All of the structural and design elements have been satisfied and only mechanical and fire code compliance issues remain. As of today, the final set of requested revisions are in the hands of the Architects. It is their goal to get these completed and back to the Building Team by the first of the week for a final review and agreement to move forward. In speaking with legal counsel, this will require us to push back the bid opening from the original date (FPDB meeting in February) to one that is a couple of weeks later. This will require a motion at the meeting to authorize the President and designees to open the bids at this special meeting. Legal counsel will elaborate more on this at the meeting.

Senefeld and Associates Architects will be on hand to discuss the Station 52 project following the review of the bid openings from last month. No other information is available on this project as it is on hold pending the outcome of this meeting.

The two benefit issues are still outstanding (merging PA & PL days into vacation days and adding a bereavement day). This was put on hold another month awaiting additional board members to be present.

The issue regarding the open vacancy in the Fire Prevention Division was also tabled until this month so board members could review policy and conduct research. Chief Thacker will be on hand at the meeting to answer any new questions.

Something that popped up again on the radar screen is the failing septic system at Station 53. As you may be aware, the system has never worked properly since its installation. It was brand-new technology at the time and was designed for roughly half of the capacity that it is currently handling. Ever since, the Board of Health has been monitoring the drip field and has discovered that it no longer passes inspection. They claim it’s because we’re overloading it and dumping “too much grease” into it. Whatever the case, they have sent a letter mandating we correct the problem immediately. Chief Brown has been in contact with Greenwood Sanitation Department as well as property owners that exist between the station and the hook-in point to the sewer system. He or a designee will have a report available at the meeting discussing options and implications.

When you arrive for the meeting, you will notice a new seating arrangement. The board members, legal counsel, and accountant will be seated at a head table and the Fire Chief, Deputy Chief, meeting recorder, and any other individuals scheduled to speak will be sitting at a table directly in front of that. The rest of the room will be set up with stadium-style seating and will be facing the head table. There will also be video and audio taping available. This is all in an effort to promote a more professional atmosphere and to hopefully allow board members to address the audience more effectively.

The board also needs to set the rest of the meeting dates for 2006. The February meeting is already officially set for February 7^th and a suggestion for the first Tuesday of every month was entertained for March through December.

Unfortunately, because the meeting was pushed back a week, it pushed right into my annual family cruise. So I will not be able to attend the meeting, however I have briefed Chief Tibbetts on financial issues in preparation for the meeting.