Castle Valley Fire Protection District
Castle Valley Fire Commission
October REGULAR MEETING
Thursday, October 8, 2026 6:30 pm
2 E Castle Valley Dr, Castle Valley, UT 84532
Attending:
Mitch Stock
Ron Drake
Egmont Honer
Maggie Peikon
Greg Halliday
Jazmine Duncan
Mike Wakeley
Carol Drake
Regular Meeting:
Call to Order: 6:44pm
Public Comment:
Jazmine asked for an update on radios & programming. Ron shared that we are still waiting on Seamus. He started to get us our own channel so we are working on that. Jazmine noted that they are waiting to reach out to him until he has the FD set up. Mitch wondered if we should reach out to someone else for assistance.
Greg asked for the status of swivels. Mike at Outback found them and is working on how best to ship them here. On engine 37 where we hook up the hoses on top there's a swivel fitting and ours are currently leaking and have proved to not be fixable, so we are getting new ones. They are $300/piece, and we need two.
Approval of Minutes from September: Approved
Administration Issues:
Trucks to be in the Gourd Fest Parade. No throwing candy from the vehicles. Plan to put out cones to block road for safety.
Honeyman would like us to have an MOU with them for using their well - i.e. our purpose during trainings and emergency use. He asked that we not put a road in and only fill from Castle Valley Drive. Danny suggested that we put our 5 horse pump into Honeyman's well and that he could use that since we won't be using it anymore - need to have a motion as to whether that would be ok for us to give that pump. Honeyman said the well would be used essentially only for CVFD.
Unanimous to give the pump to Honeyman. They may or may not take it.
Ron shared that the county treasurer called him and said that one of our reports is not in, so the state is holding up our money. It's a self evaluation form. The form was due June 30th. Fraud Risk Assessment is the other due June 30th, which was done, so maybe this was overlooked. Mitch is confident that we already submitted it. Once it is submitted or discovered, funds will be released to us. Mitch was surprised we are only just hearing about it now, but Mike noted they may have just done the audit and other entities outside of us were included in missing it.
Chief's Report: Ron Drake
Not too much this month, we had one fire that wasn't paged out. Fire Mitch was made aware of up by Round Mountain and he went up there and found it. Ron met him up there with a truck. Caused by a lightning strike.
On the 11th Ron went to Ranch to do a standby while they did fireworks there
On the 19th Ron went to Castleton for EMS assist with Grand County EMS
DAQ started issuing burn permits last Saturday and Sunday, so Ron called the fire warden and he called DAQ and they're going to stop the permits. At the time it was pretty warm still, but the fire danger is pretty low right now. Currently listed as 'moderate' in the Valley, after the weekend rain will likely go down to 'low'. Ron shared they might reopen burns after the weekend. We can burn all winter/it will be open all winter until spring.
2100 mailboxes are shut down, so have to go to town for mail. The office has been notified.
Treasurer's Report: Carol Drake, Mike Wakeley
Balance sheet PTIF 283,983.63 PTIF General 143,387.39 Total assets: 450,818.96, 25% ahead of last year.
Donations for the last month $4,250
Engine maintenance 156% over our estimate, equipment also at 100% of what we had budgeted
Discussion and Possible Action: Reviewing Draft Budget
The form that Carol sent out shows the 2026 budget in comparison to the draft budget of 2027. Had Grand County in there, donations changed a bit. The maintenance section did move some money around from other places to get more money there. If anything looks askew, let Mike know and we can make alterations. A lot of it looks fairly similar to last year. Some minor changes back and forth. Did put the water tender in there, so if that were to happen we have it budgeted for. Carol reiterated we put in the budget money from Grand County PILT, therefore also we said one of the things we would be using that money for is the water tanks and water tender we don't have an updated price for the water tender so we are using the same numbers as last year for place holders. We should consider asking for new numbers on the water tender. Greg asked if we know how much money we are getting from PILT - we are waiting for their December budget meeting. Mitch noted we can always amend the budget if any big things happen. Waiting on numbers from Danny for his cost for the water tank project (currently listed in 'repairs/other' on budget). Motion approved to move budget forward.
Discussion and Possible Action: Lot 13 Chamisa Water Update & Honeyman Well
Mitch shared that the scenario so far is that 2 5,000 gallon tanks will be partially buried so not to freeze and the two gallons are connected. There will be a booster pump that should give us 1,000 gallons/minute. That booster pump can be tied into the existing water station. We need to pull the 5 horse pump, and put a lower level pump in so we are pumping the clean water off the top and putting it into the cisterns. The cisterns will not be easy to clean, but we could put in a sand filter. Egmont shared that a pool vacuum would work because it is not ribbed. Greg has a pool vacuum. Motion to start buying the tanks - will be at least $12-15,000 on our side - Mike has a question before we make a motion we just approved it in the 2027 budget, it's not in our current budget. Mitch asked where we could pull that money from in our current budget? Carol said we could get rid of the loan payment for 2026, but we need a public hearing for amending and adopting a new budget. Mitch said we don't need to do an amended budget if we pull from another line item. Total repairs and maintenance is an option, the one we've gone over on is the engine maintenance. Mitch's understanding was that you didn't have to do an amended budget unless you were going over your total expense overall. Mitch proposes using some of the money from other line items to fund that and take it out of next year's budget. Unanimously getting going on the tanks and using money from other 2026 line items that haven't been used.
Egmont asked if we were buying a water tender, and what is wrong with the one in the field. Mitch noted there are a number of issues going on with 'Big Red' - it is unreliable, dangerous to drive in this area, Mike shared it's not viable for our needs. The one we have at Station 2 is 26 years old.
Discussion and Possible Action: 2027 PC Statement & 2026 Reporting
CVFD used to do this, but made the town the responsible signing party
Need to know where we are at with all of the things on the list from the Participation Commitment Statement
Cost for 4th of July - $1,299.37
Need full cost for Gourd Festival
Chipper Day Spring, Chipper Day Fall (Mid-November)
Winter Fire School (N/A, did not happen) - Carol noted no training expense for 2026
Spring Engine Training (N/A, did not happen)
Jazmine will talk to Bruce to see if monthly training counts for preparedness
For 2027 we need to create a new list and Jazmine wonders if we will do the same events again. 4th of July, Gourd Festival, Mitigation (from road department clearing tumbleweeds), Chipper Day, Preparedness items need to be talked about to see if we can put in our standard training.
Discussion and Possible Action: Necessary documentation for grant applications (Call log to provide number of incidents per year with breakdown (i.e. traffic accidents, house fires, forest fires, etc.), area parameters & population for where CVFD responds & serves (i.e. would CVFD respond to a fire at Red Cliffs?) current volunteer count & who has what certifications, current equipment inventory)
Going to work on a process to make digital documents that we can easily update and maintain.
Discussion and possible action on long term planning, fire dept. needs, priorities, vision and policies: development of standard operating guidelines, policies and procedures.
End of year gifts are coming up. $200 limit total, 16 people are currently on Ron's list which does include a few people that are not active.
Do we still want to have our summer BBQ? We usually have it in September, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe next training on October 20th at 5pm.
Closed Session (if necessary): personnel matters, awards; recognition program, etc.
Adjourn: 8:06pm
Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals needing special accommodations (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) during this meeting should notify Leta Vaughn at 435-259-2364.