General Information

Government Type

Special Service District

Entity

Cedar Mountain Service District

Public Body

Board of Trustees

Notice Information

Add Notice to Calendar

Notice Title

June Monthly Meeting Mintues

Notice Tags

Adoption

Notice Type(s)

Notice

Event Start Date & Time

June 11, 2016 10:00 AM

Description/Agenda

Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Minutes June 11,2016 3620 Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT 84762 Board Members Present: Mike Petullo,Chairman Frank Gagliardi District Clerk Brad Robbins Treasurer Chuck Brechler Member Jay Wilhelm, Member- absent Robert Shackleford- Member Vacant Position, Member It is June 11,2o16 at 10:00 am. This is the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Governing Board's Monthly meeting for the month of June is now in session. Chuck Brechler and Jay Wilhelm are absent. Invocation Pledge of Allegiance Agenda: Chairman Comments: On May 28 the Volunteer BBQ was held here at the station with many board members, volunteers, and support volunteers attending. Good time was had by all, no complaints. Last month at the LEPC meeting that Chairman Petullo and Fire Chief Tuttle attended there were some representatives from Southern Utah Public Health that gave a briefing on the after action report that was written as result of Spandex XL. It was a five county exercise including Washington County, Iron County, Kane County, Beaver County and Garfield County. The main EOC was located in Washington County.The five counties were evaluated on planning. They scored that as a strength. There are three categories: strength, need improvement, area of improvement. Washington County was supposed to have 137 people hospitalized and 91 deaths. There was a lot of confusion at the hospital as the hospital was not prepared. The medical surge plan which, the five county region has one and they were using the state plan that was scored as a strength. Emergency Communications and Coordination they scored that as a weakness. There was not a lot of communication between the main EOC that was in Washington County and the other five county's EOC's.Operational Coordination of Protective Measures scored that as a strength. Public Information was scored a weakness. Kane County, the area that needed improvement,was communication. Kane County was getting information from Washington County and they were not passing it on to us. CIASC, (Communication Information and Support Center) and these facilit ies are set up in the event of a pandemic that is the plan. As people are becoming ill in the community, rather than going to the fire station or some public building where they would contaminate the emergency workers they would go to the CISC facilities to get information. One of the documents that came out of the briefing is the Stay At Home Kit. This will be sent to all the HOA presidents. In our situation we have no place to send anybody. Kanab, Panguitch and Cedar City hospitals would be over whelmed. We have to make do with what we have. The Stay At Home Kit gives you a lot of information example, covering your mouth, washing your hands, wearing gloves etc. The second section talks about the care giving for family, friends, neighbors, kids and pets. Tells what you do in those situations. Thirty seven pages of good information. This is posted on the Utah Public Health Website. This is where Chairman Petullo found it as a result of this briefing. We do not have a CIASC at the present time up here, however the Chief has been talking with the Pastor at the Duck Creek Community Church and he would be willing to use that facility as public CIASC as we do not want people coming here to the fire station contaminating the volunteers that may be here. The Pastor is out of town, but a meeting will be set up with him. Bill Moser,from Swains creek, on the 3rd of July at noon is going to have a cook out {Chuck Brechler has now come in for the Board meeting) at the open area by the deli as he owns that land, for the volunteers and the board. He is also offering up on July 4rd to the residents that same location to shoot off their fireworks in one place rather than in all the subdivisions which would be a fire hazard. The advantage to that would be the Chief would have volunteers there while this was going on. Chief Tuttle said these would be ground fireworks. Chairman Petullo said they need to talk about it, putting it on the Web letting seasonal people know, Everbridge etc. rather than setting off fireworks at their cabin in the woods. It would be safer to do it in one place with the fire department there.This will be talked about some more. Last year the Chief and volunteers responded to a call for a seizure at the Visitors Center. When the people called 911the call went to Color Country Dispatch and not Kanab. So it took forty minutes or so before the responders arrive on the scene. Chief Tuttle took over telling the story. The Visitors Center did call 911 and got Color Country Dispatch. They said an ambulance was on its way. Chief Tuttle said he does not know who they called. No one in Kane County was notified. So basically forty five minutes later they called the fire station to complain that no one showed up. So dispatch was contacted and CMFPD was paged out. It took 9 minutes to get there, but if you add that to the 45 minutes it was a long time. Chief Tuttle said he was fortunate to be on scene and he took the brunt of their anger and he investigated the matter, wrote them a letter. They in turn wrote us a letter and all was resolved. But recently we had another call about a man on a bicycle and CMFPD got praised. They were really impressed with the response, and the way the call was handled. It was a total 180 degree turn around from the other call,which was not our fault. The same family two years in a row with accidents. For the record the volunteers get thanks. There was also an emailfrom Dan Schapiro who is a seasonal person and he stated he received the latest addition Spring 16 addition of the Newsletter and he stated what an outstanding publication. He lives out in the boonies in southern Ca. It was such a benefit to receive the very through and informative issue. Approval of Minutes; Motion to approve the minutes by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion seconded by Treasurer Robbins. Motion is approved. Chairman Petullo introduced our new attorney Lowry Snow. The Board has been doing business with his son Devin who has been assigned to us. Mr. Snow stated it felt like a great honor to help and he also has a residence up here so he has an interest in the good work CMFPD is doing. Treasurers Report: Capital Improvements $151,812.06 Fire Funds Checking 1 8,060.25 Fire Funds Savings 1 77,027.91 Fund Raising Savings 7,276.05 Mountain America 3,003.49 Snow Emergency Fund 83,062.43 Wells Fargo 237,520.52 Zions 416,320.59 Total Checking/ Savings $1 , 097,087.23 Treasurer Robbins reported that the Capital Improvement account basically no change. Some interest accrued. Fire Funds Checking account changed moderately and basically reflects the operations that we do here. In order to pay for those operations we had to take some money out of the Fire Funds Savings and move into the Fire Funds Checking,about approximately $4000.00. There was no change to the following accounts: Fund Raising Savings,Mountain America, Snow Emergency Fund. In order to pay for the operations of the snow removal they moved $100,000.00 from Wells Fargo,which is our Snow Savings Account into the Snow Removal Fund Account. Approximately $36,000.00 was paid to Harris Construction and Mountaintime in order to remove snow. Zion is a fire funds account and that increased by $15,000.00 that was mostly money collected by the newsletter. That concludes the Treasurer's report. Motion was made by District Clerk Gagliardi to accept the Treasurer's report. Motion was seconded by Member Brechler and Member Shackleford. Motion carries. Treasurer Robbins stated at the last meeting he mentioned that Zion's was going to be here today, unfortunately they were unable to make it but they will be here at the next meeting. He thinks what they have to say about fraud protection is very interesting,something he would implement here as the Treasurer. Treasurer Robbins stated we are out of date the way in which we do banking at this point in time. We need to modernize. Chairman Petullo and Treasurer Robbins a couple of weeks ago met with Zions Bank and went over how we could be better protected against embezzlement, fraud, how we can better accept the money, signatures. He does have a handout from Zions that he would like the board members to take a look at. He will let Zions Bank talk about that at the next board meeting. Treasurer Robins wants to talk about our bank accounts. Right now we have nine different bank accounts as you can see on the slide,spread across four different banks. We bank with Zions, Wells Fargo, Mountain America and State Bank. The reason for having these four different banks was to better to protect our assets in case of bank failure, because at the time there was thought that $250,000.00 limit for insurance also applied to government agencies. Treasurer Robbins has been doing a lot of research since being the Treasurer and come to find out for governmental agencies you can have $250,000.00 in checking and $250,000.00 in savings both FDIC insured. This is per tax identification number and purpose. He has checked on line, and he has confirmed with the FDIC that it is $250,000.00 and $250,000.00 as long as it is checking,savings, or deposits. The whole reason why we have the four banks was to spread out our money, which was the right thing to do, but it is also extremely cumbersome in the way we do our banking and how we have to deposit checks at times.So,he brings this up for basically three reasons. Treasure Robbins spoke with the auditors a couple of week ago they told us we had too many accounts. We do have several accounts most of them never change except for the little bit of interest that we gain on those. In talking with the auditors about the comment they made last year they stated it was not their intent to make it cumbersome or difficult upon us. They just thought we should have money in more than one bank, which is true. Having money in four different banks at this point in time is extremely difficult in a lot of different ways. He has to run up and down the mountain, also Frank, Mike and the Chief just to deposit money. Example: in order to move money from Snow Savings account to Snow Checking account in order to pay, they are two separate banks. You have to go to Wells Fargo Bank, to get a cashier's check, hand carry it to State Bank in order for us to pay our bills. It has been cumbersome, it has been hard, we are allvolunteers and it is not that easy a task to do. So, back to our bank accounts. We have 9 bank accounts spread over four different banks. As you can see month after month why these accounts never change except for some interest. Most of our activity is in Fire Checking and Fire Savings. We do about forty checks and transactions in that account a month. The second most active is the Snow Checking Account which we write about two checks a month or there about in the snow season. The rest are pretty much inactive. Treasurer Robbins did have to go down about a month ago due to one of the accounts being inactive and reactive the account to keep it going. Having said that, it is important to understand where our money comes from. Basically it comes from two major sources other than from donations and things like that. We get from our fire assessments and the snow assessments. We never mix those monies and the Board has done a great job to never mix those monies over the years. District Clerk Gagliardi has done great job keeping those things separate. They should never be mixed and with keeping this in mind, we always need to protect our monies to the greatest extent possible, but have in place the most stringent safe guards we can to prevent fraud and embezzlement. Also keep in mind that we have to be efficient in the way we do things and also cost effective with our time and resources. Therefore, after looking at all of this stuff and as your Treasurer what he is going to recommend since the majority of activity, and the majority of our potential risk is in our Fire Checking and Savings Account, that we move our Fire Checking and Savings Account to Zion's Bank. Zion's has better fraud protection in his opinion and more ways to check things that are going on in his opinion than the other banks. He believes we need to combine Snow Removal and Snow Emergency Fund into a checking and saving account into one bank, that bank being State Bank. That way we can transfer money from one account to the other more easily than the way we are doing it right now. He believes we need to keep the Capital Improvement Fund Checking account at Mountain America. Treasurer Robbins is suggesting that we get rid of the Wells Fargo account. Wells Fargo for whatever reason they cannot separate, if you have personal account at Wells Fargo, and a governmental account and your name is on both of those for whatever reason if you pull it up on the computer all of your accounts will show up. He banks at Wells and so do some of the other board member and he does not know why Wells can't figure this out, but for some reason they can't. He recommends that we get rid of the Wells Fargo account that we have. Then eliminate and combining some of the other accounts that just sit around and are not doing anything. The result he is asking for is to go from nine accounts down to five accounts spread over three banks. It will be easier to deal with fund transfers when we have to do that. We will still be insured with all these banks and they all have been recommended by the State Auditors for use for governmental use with governmental agencies. It would be far less cumbersome than it is now and easier to reconcile accounts, and provide better protection against fraud and investments. Member Brechler made the motion to go with the Treasurers recommendations to go from 9 accounts to 5 accounts. District Clerk Gagliardi seconded the motion. Motion carries. District Clerks Report The monthly spending is down about half of what it has been. Very few bills have come through and not a lot of additional spending. Year to date, according to the reports,we are sitting at about 30 to35% of budgeted expenditures and we are not quite 50% through the year. Some line items are pretty high. Communications is at 94% at what we budgeted,but those are not regular expenses.Those come up as there is a need. Public Relations is setting at 98% of what we budgeted but we have spent a lot of money on preparing for the summer activities where we donate things and give things away. Over all we are pretty much where we should be. District Clerk Gagliardi sent out to all the board members a copy of this year's budget asking that the board members start thinking about the 2017 budget. The Chief has his copy of it also and admin is working on their section as well. Please take a look at it and give any thoughts, suggestions that you have on it. This needs to be worked on as this has to be approved by the end of December. His goal every year is to have it done by the November Board meeting. We are required to have a public hearing at least one. Typically we do that in October prior to the October Board meeting so that if there are any significant changes to the budget proposal,we have a least one board meeting before we have to vote on the proposed budget.We have already started on it and thank you in advance. Surety Bond for years has been for the Treasurer and the District Clerk. There has been a change and all board members are now covered under the Surety Bond. That means the cost for that is $2,300.00. We just renewed it last week and we only have $900.00 budgeted for that. On a positive side the Chief did get a grant for PPE for wildland and structure. Total $14,798.00. The Chief needs us to approve the expenditure as it is above $5000.00 so District Clerk Gagliardi suggested we go ahead and approve that as we have to pay the bill and then submit the billto get reimbursed by the first of Nov. 2016. We were audited on May 26, 2016 basically the audit went very well. The only discrepancy was the change to the Utah Public Notice requirement that occurred effect Jan.1st and we had no knowledge of it. All meeting minutes are now required to be posted on the Utah Public Notice Website. We have been posting the agendas and other notices but not the minutes. The auditor's report may take a couple of months to see that, but everyone will get the report. He would recommend the spending of $15,000.00 for PPE so the Chief can get his order in. Motion was made by Member Brechler to approve the purchase of the PPE equipment with the money coming out of the reserves and then being put back in the reserves when the grant money comes in. Motion was seconded by Treasure Robbins. Motion carries. Question from the public: Can we go back and have all the 2016 minutes put on the website. The answer is yes. Chief's Report: We have responded to 18 calls for service since the last Board Meeting. 7 EMS calls,11Miscellaneous or Public assist calls. We have pit inspections, and trees falling down in the middle of the road. Fleet Maintenance: Rig checks have been performed every week at both stations, right now our fleet is 100% operational. Training: The EMR class is going on. The class is currently being held in the bay and will finish up in about 2-3 weeks with state testing. The practical will be here and the written testing will be held at a state facility, either in Kanab or Cedar City. We have 5 volunteers taking an on-line Wildland training class and will be testing on the 18th in Orderville. There is a possibility of a cabin in Swains Creek for training and then being burned down. It will be the same thing they did when they burned the sales office in Swains Creek. They asked us about the demolition afterwards. We have a possibility for more good training with this cabin. Grants: No word on the 2015 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (Engines and Extrication Equipment). No word on the 2015 SAFER Grant (Paid Positions) We were awarded the 2016 Utah Assistance to Fire Department Grant (PPE) $15,000.00 Full Time Firefighter Positions: It has been advertised in the Sun News out of Kanab, the State Website, our website as well as postings throughout the village. We have received two applications from candidates for the position. We have given out five applications to people who are interested. Position closes on the 20th of this month. We also talked a little about the fireworks on the 4th of July. On the 2nd of July is the Pancake Breakfast we will have the parade in the village. The 4th of July it has been talked about an area in the village where we can have fireworks set off. Rescue 70 would be there, and probably the wildland truck. The volunteers would be standing by for fire support in case any thing happens.Chief Tuttle was told in years past, before him, that that was a common thing that occurred. Last year we were trying to get an ordinance to ban fireworks. How did that work? Chairman Petullo stated that according to Lamont Smith the Commissioners agreed to add the word Fireworks into the current ordinance. Chairman Petullo said he had not seen it on the website yet. Chief Tuttle asked if the no fireworks ban goes into effect can they do the fireworks? Chairman Petullo stated the Chief would have to consult with Spencer Rollo, the Fire Warden and the Sheriff. They are the two bodies that determine a fire ban. Member Brechler said in the city, the city council has authority over fireworks. Since we are not in a city Member Brechler said it was the County Commissioner and Fire Marshal. Chairman Petullo stated the ordinance says the County Warden and the Sheriff. Discussion continued. Conclusion was to find out if the Fire Warden and the Sheriff were agreeable to setting off fireworks and then go from there. Chief Tuttle said he talked to the Fire Warden and he was agreeable with setting them off, but he has not checked with the Sheriff yet. Chairman Petullo stated that the Sheriff's Department is the one to write citations and in 2014 we could not put out no fireworks as it was not an ordinance and it could not be enforced. Chief Tuttle said he would set up the committee after talking with the Sheriff. A couple Members of the Board will consist of the subcommittee . Brad Robbins and Check Brechler will help with the coordination of the fireworks . Snow Liaison Report: Member Shackleford stated this will conclude the 2015/2016 snow season. Contracted snow removal by CMFPD starts October 15th and ends May 15 At the close of each season, there is a 30 day property damage claims period. This allows for any claims or disputes to be filled with CMFPD. As of this closing date, no claims or complaints have been received. He stated this was the last report untilnext year. Repost submitted by Robert Shackleford. Member Brechler wanted to thank Member Shackleford for his hard work. Motion on the table to accept the last 2015-2016 Snow Liaison Snow Report was made by Member Brechler. Motion was seconded by Treasurer Robbins. Motion Carries. Chairman Petullo told Member Shackleford he did a great job and the contractors and sub-contractors. Old Business: Townsite Act and Station Expansion No report. Still with the Forestry Service. Real Property (Swains) Chairman Petullo said this is regarding the property from Barbara Christensen she was going to donate. Chairman Petullo asked the Chief about it and the Chief replied that he had spoken with the daughter and said they would come up this summer and go over the property then. So there is nothing to report right now. Swains Creek Barn/MOU Swains Creek Barn Chairman Petullo has a draft lease agreement with Swains Creek that went to all board members. Frank has comments. Please hold all comments untildiscussion is over so we only have to change this once. The Chief did some leg work. We have been discussing the barn and the repairs that the property owners in Swains would have to do to the barn,including heating, insulation, strengtheningthe existing beams and structure, due to the swaying of the building in the wind, even if they get all that done, the engine barely fits in the barn. You have to be a really good driver to get it in there. In some of these discussions we have talked about a metal building. Actually the homeowners in Swains have brought it up, pictures on the screen. This building has water, and power to it. It sits on adjourning lots. There is no heat in the building,but the owner of the building is willing to sell, the building and the 2 lots together. You can see that there is only one door in the building. The building is 2400 sq. ft. We do not know how long the building has been there. Chief Tuttle said the man told him he had had the property for 30 yrs. Chief Tuttle knows the building has been there since 2009 and that is when the Chief bought his cabin. The owner wanted to put a business in the metal building and the homeowners association would not allow it as it did not look like a cabin nor was it a commercial property. Not insulated or heated and has a gravel floor,stem wall around it, no septic, and was built to code at the time of construction. At the time they could not put in a septic but can now. Sallie Shackleford wanted to know what the discussion was? Was it for Swains property owners to buy the metal building and allow the trucks to be stored there or for the fire department to purchase? Chief Tuttle responded for the CMFPD to purchase the property and it would be another station for us. Sallie Shackleford made the comment that the barn belongs to the Swains POA and in order for it to benefit their rating they were agreeing to parking a vehicle there and have a sub-station there with the bulk of the expense of that would fall on the POA because it is to their benefit for the ratings. The Chief contacted a reality since the owner of the metal barn said to make him an offer. ChiefTuttle contacted John Arana from Duck Creek Village and he came up with $91,000.00. Discussion followed with the cost on this property and different prices in Swains Creek. Pros and cons were given for both the barn and the metal building. Mr. Snow,our attorney wanted to inject in the conversation that the Swain Creek POA is very active board and the CC and R's that regulated this community include this piece of property he believes. The CC and R's restrict the use of the lots to residential purposes.This would be a wonderful public purpose, you want to make sure that you can alleviate any context by property owners or the POA not that the POA would give you any problem, but under the law if property owners are protected by covenants any property owner would have the right to take some action, you want to proceed carefully. Worse case situation would make the investment and then be precluded from its use. ChiefTuttle said he spoke with Janelle Pierce, the association president, but he did not think about the home owners. So the POA is fine with it. Mr. Snow said this building has not been used as a residential in prior years and no problem with the POA. He certainly is not going to advise the POA, but they have also have to understand that once they give a waiver then they set precedence as well. So if both issues can be worked through as CMFPD proceeds then take that into consideration. Discussion went on and the lawyer gave further recommendations. Chairman Petullo said that Swains POA had their monthly meeting the same day as our next monthly meeting.One of the questions Janelle had was is CMFPD serious with going ahead with the barn construction as they do not want to invest all this money in the barn and then we don't put the truck there or we buy the metal building and put the truck there. When we were looking at the property in Elk Ridge at Station 2 the Planning Commission suggested that we contact each home owner that were around Station 2, because we were going to put a building there even though it was not on Elk Ridge Property,but butts Elk Ridge Property. This is something we should do here also. Mr. Snow said part of the litigation is mediating this. You need to do everything you can to reduce it. He thought of a couple of things he thought the POA might consider doing and that it is in the best interest of the community maybe the POA would take on an indemnification, which means that they would be willing to take on a suite. If you actually end up making an offer, build into it a condition that it is subject to legal review. Janelle had bought up this option not getting the barn of getting the metal building. Member Brechler made a motion to approve the lease agreement subject review by the lawyer. Chairman Petullo stated that he had put Engine 77 as the one to be in the barn. District Clerk Gagliardi's question was why are we limiting it to one vehicle? Chairman Petullo's response was the others don't fit. Member Brechler said that the comments District Clerk Gagliardi had put on his copy of the lease should be subject to review by the attorney. A termination clause should also be in the lease. The question was asked if we were not going to pursue the metal building. Member Brechler said that the cost to get that metal building up to our needs,needs to be looked at, the flooring,the septic, insulation etc. If we authorized to buy the building it would be finalized in the fall and then it would be probably 1Yi years before we could use it. The Chairman repeated the motion, subject to review by the lawyer,we accept the lease agreement with Swains. Motion was seconded by Member Shackleford . Salli Shackleford asked if by approving this lease and then the POU had some modifications that they agreed to make. Where are we on that path? Chief Tuttle said they are going to do some repairs,the swaying of the barn. They did want to know how far they should go with the remodeling. Salli Shackleford asked how quickly could they make that building ready for the Chief to put his equipment in it? Both the Chairman and the Chief said they assumed this summer. Salli Shackleford asked if there was a deadline for the ISO Rating that they were concerned about? This was talked about early on. Chief Tuttle responded that they gave us a grey area. Once we submit the paperwork it will take three or four months to get everything in line. As long as it is done within the first year,we should be good and they will not have to come back and do another ISO. District Clerk Gagliardi stated part of the ISO as long as there is not a sufficient change to our situation where we are required to let the ISO folks know so that they can adjust the rating. If it takes too long then it falls into that category. No further discussion. Chairman Petullo wants to know if we are going to tell Swains POA to proceed with the remodeling.The Swains POA did not want us to put the truck out there for more than two years, they were giving us the two years to find somewhere to park this truck. District Clerk Gagliardi stated that we should let Swains Creek know that we are serious about putting the truck out there and we are getting a lease agreement together for out there. It is basically written, but is being review by the attorney and being rewritten with additions and corrections by CMFPD and Swains POA. The attorney said this goes to Swains,they have to decide if it meets their needs. If they do not like a provision or provisions they will communicate with their attorney. Just because we are authorizing this does not mean that you have a deal. This is the place you are starting with your motion. This is the place you are formatting according to your needs. Motion carries. Mr. Snow said they would make a couple of changes and return to the Board. Zions View Snow Removal Report: There is not much to report. They put a blurb in their newsletter about wanting snow removal or not and there has not been a tally yet as to wanting back in snow removal or not. Advertise for one or two firefighters: This was previously discussed in the Chief's report. Harrisell Corp Website Design Contract. The gentleman was here last month he did a presentation. Member Brechler asked that we get to review the contract before we went any farther. The contract is in the binders.This was received a couple of days ago. Mr. Snow stated the basic services are pretty basic as far as they have seen. This is the type of contract their firm has entered into production and postingon their website. Very similar. Be aware that the $500.00 initial is for a fairly basic setup, but that maybe all that we need anything in addition to that is going to be an extra $75.00 an hour fee for extras. $50.00 a month fee for hosting. This is pretty standard. The only legal issue he had that he found very unusual is that they say, and they probably use a form, which he does not like, would be interrupted under the laws of the State of Nevada, Jur isdiction of Nevada, and he knows there are a lot of people from Nevada that live up here and he does not want to offend anyone, but he prefers that in Utah dealing with the Jurisdiction with the State of Utah and applying Utah law. He is guessing that they picked this up using a Nevada Form. This company is out of Cedar City. That is the big issue, they see that in more contracts. If there is litigation, then you do not want to prosecute in the state of Nevada, you want to use your home town jurisdiction for any legal action. Mr. Snow is happy to answer any questions, but as long as you understand what it is that you are getting,and paying for, the duration of the commitment. Once your website is up you would want a contract that allows you to do your own production after it is set up, but if you want them to do it there will be an extra fee for updating the website. Chairman Petullo stated what bothers him about this is that they are asking for the $550.00 up front before they even start and he does not like to pay the whole money up front before they even start. They have already sent a bill for the $550.00. Attorney Snow also said that someone should do the leg work before we get into a contract with this or any company. This is especially true if we are paying in advance, we need a list of references with them, two, three or four companies that they have prepared websites for. We would need to contact the people to see if they are happy with the company and take the time to look at those sites and see what you think of them and that would allow you to look at the quality of the work etc. Attorney Snow said he would prefer a 50% down and the rest on finished website. He would really encourage us to look at others locally to check out the production and the hosting of the website. Any reputable company would be proud to allow access to any of the websites they have created. Ask about the maintenance of the website and if we have the right to do it ourselves without having to go through them. Chairman Petullo stated that this needs to go out to three company for bids. District Clerk Gagliardi stated the same. Brad Robbins asked if we needed this. Discussion followed. It will be put out to bid and Attorney Snow said his IT man will look at it. New Business: Vacant Board Member Position Applicants: Chairman Petullo stated there were three applicants and one withdrew her application. The two applicants that we have are Diane Adams, and William June. This position has been vacant more than ninety days and there is a statue that the applicant has to go before the County Commissioners, because they have the appointing authority as they are above the local Board. Member Brechler asked if the Board had actually accepted Alice Redmond's resignation. Member Brechler stated that until it was accepted there was no resignation. Chairman Petullo stated in the past the commissioners have told us we are on. Attorney Snow stated a case from years past and because the resignation was done in an open meeting and we moved forward on that resignation. In other words, no more duties assumed by that person, there was no resending of that resignation, then it was probably effective on that date. The safest approach would be to say that was the date and involve the county. When the county said we are on our own, they may be saying to you is that you do the nomination and then all they have to do is put it on their agenda and do a formal appointment after that,but they can't absolve this stuff where it is there responsibility, Mr. Snow's office needs to do a letter to help with that. They can't escape their duty under the code to essentially complete that process. We still exist under the control of the county. They may say we are on our own but not really. Mr. Snow recommended that we narrow the field to one or two. If it is one request that it be put on the county agenda or appoint and it becomes official at that point. Diane Adams applicant. Member Brechler asked Diane if she attend the meetings held once a month? Diane Adams assured Member Brechler and the Board that she can attend the meetings. They are making Duck Creek more and more their home. Member Brechler ask Mr. June the same question. William June answered that he had just retired and the majority of the time he is here on the mountain. District Clerk asked that each give a background on who they are and the reason they want to be on the board. The letters are in with the minutes. Chairman Petullo stated there is paper work involved and computer skills involved and the term goes until 2019. Member Brechler stated he feels more comfortable with a lady on the board that can give us a somewhat different view on things.Chairman Petullo thanked both candidates for applying and as everyone knows there are more vacancy's on this board than elections. Board was polled for each person. Applicant Diane Adams: Chuck Brechler yes Bob Shackleford yes Brad Robbins yes Frank Gagliardi yes Mike Petullo yes Applicant Bill June: Chuck Brechler no Bob Shackleford no Brad Robbins no Frank Gagliardi stated before he cast his vote that both candidates are good and it is a hard discussion to make,but he will have to vote no Mike Petullo would like to say they are like what Frank said, very good candidates and would like to have them both, but we can only have one so his vote is no. The board will recommend Diane Adams the appointment to CMFPD Board. Betty willwrite a letter to the Commissioners. Hopefully they will act on it quickly. Betty will call Karla Johnson to get it on their agenda. Congratulations. Diane Adams said thank you very much and she hopes to do her share. V-D-400 This is the job description of the Firefighter/ EMT. Everyone has received a copy electronically. The red will be removed and the green wording will be inserted. District Clerk Gagliardi in the interest of time moves to accept the changes as written. Brad Robbins seconded the motion. All in favor say aye. Motion Carries. Impact Fee/ Public Hearing Date Chairman Petullo said that at some point CMFPD will have to come up with the money to purchase the land this building sits on, in addition talked about the building in Swains, and we need a new vehicle for the Chief down the road. To refresh memories as far as the fees go for this property, we have about four acres of this property. In the earlier meetings when they were talking about the Townsite Act, the Commissioners were estimating that the Forestry Service would charge anywhere between $12,000.00 to $20,000.00 per acre. Forestry Service said fair market value and he does not what fair market value is. We also talked about expanding the station. We cannot do as the station now sits on leased land. When this happens we need to have ready cash. We can go with a onetime impact fee to each lot owner or raise the fees. We have already sent in the fees to the county for this calendar year. Commissioner Clayton said they are expecting a decision on the Townsite Act within a couple of years that was 6 months ago. We talked about the impact few a couple of months ago, it is a onetime charge to each lot owner. The money comes in and is put into a separate account and that account is earmarked for whatever the impact fee was designated for, in this case to buy land. Keep in mind in addition to the $12 to $20,000.00 an acre,we have to pay the survey fees whether it is decided to buy the land or just the 4 acres. Right now we are committed to 8 or 10 acres. The understanding is right now that when the Townsite Act goes through we can modify how much land we want to purchase. We are not bound to the 10 acres. The thought was to charge an impact fee, because it is less a burden on the taxpayer than raising the fee, which we would have to do in 2017 budget. Member Brechler stated he was not familiar with the impact fee. He suggested a rate increase instead. Treasurer Robbins is for both. Chairman Petullo went over what an impact fee was for. Discussion about the issue went on and on from what was fair to a person owning one lot and a person owning four as a member of the audience has. As discussions were continued it was brought up only doing an impact on new construction and a member of the audience brought up the possibility of lawsuits etc. This discussion went on for 30 to 40 minutes with no resolve except there has to be a public hearing on this matter. Mr. Snow would like to look at this closer to see who is goingto collect the impact fee,if the county would or what. Chairman Petullo said this would be for the purchase of the land whether the Township Act goes through or we end up buying this land. We still need to expand this station and that is a separate topic from Swains Creek. We need more bays here and we can't expand the station because we are on a special use permit with the Forestry Service and they will not allow us to expand, because of the Townsite Act in the process of being decided. There is only $135,000.00 give or take in the Capital Improvement account. We need to use that to either purchase the land or building expansion. We do not have that much capital to do both right now. In order to apply for a grant for construction you have to start the construction. District Clerk Gagliardi said something to think about, if we do an impact fee we might get a lot of push back on an impact, instead if we have an assessment increase we would have all the flexibility that we would need to use those fund as we needed them. Whether to purchase land, station expansion, building an additional station in Swains Creek, or down the road paying for the fulltime firefighters that we applied for a grant on that we will still need to pay when the grant expires. District Clerk Gagliardi stated he sees more flexibility on our part with if just had a regular assessment increase. It would be more money to us as we would see this annually instead of just one time. Treasurer Robbins agrees with District Clerk Gagliardi that we can do an impact fee as long as it is associated with just new construction and we should get that with new construction, because they are making an impact on what we are doing. We need more of a long term stream of money and we need the flexibility of where we use it. Discussion continued. During discussion talking over people and any voices were indistinguishable. Chairman Petullo stated that the Board speaks first and then the public. Impact fee must be stated for a purpose and it has to go for that account. A public hearing has to be held. Chairman Petullo stated in addition to the impact fee we will have to raise the fees anyway. As District Clerk Gagliardi stated we have been operating on $85.00 a lot for at least 10 years and he is going to say 15 years. It is getting hard to operate on that amount. There is a lot coming down the road, building expansion, land, new equipment, the Chief needs a vehicle. Chairman Petullo asked the Board what they were going to do. Member Brechler said he was very interested in what the steps are that are necessary. He still feels that putting it on as a $5.00 per year lot increase per year so we spread it over a few years. We may not get it as fast, but we could get a loan for it. We could also sell bonds for the money. Chairman Petullo interjected that as a tax payer he does not want to see CMFPD borrowing money. They went down that road before and CMFPD got into trouble for doing it. Raising something $5.00 a year is not going to generate the funds a year, two or three years to buy that land or add onto the building or anything else. It is not going to happen. $5.00 times 3000 lots is what would be raised every year. Treasurer Robbins is for the impact fee as long as it is for new construction. He has been on record that we should raise our fees. District Clerk Gagliardi stated we should go with a public hearing to get the public's views. District Clerk Gagliardi stated we should make the public hearing for both the assessment fee and the impact fee that way we can get all the input we can to see which way the public sees us going. Attorney willcome back with the requirements to publish. Discussion still continued. Treasurer Robbins stated that we need more information, that we cannot just put a fee out there. District Clerk Gagliardi said he did not think we were ready to have a public hearing as of yet. This willbe tabled untilnext meeting. Attorney Snow said he thought it would help if they provided an outline, where CMFPD is within the law, what our options are, so what we need to be aware of, to at least define the issue for us so when we return next month, CMFPD has the definition for what CMFPD can do and how it would work. Attorney Snow thinks that would be very helpful to the Board. Treasurer Robbins agreed. The attorney said they would make it straight forward so CMFPD can see where we are and what is required, both with respect to the new construction impact fee versus a blanket fee. Grant Funds: Chairman Petullo stated this has already been spoken of in PPE. Phillips AED : Chief Tuttle stated that with the new positions we are advertising for right now, there will be an EMS kit, but he does not have a spare AED kit. The Chief has looked into purchasing one for the new fulltime guys so they will have one with them. They are about $1700.00 brand new, he has found a demo for $1300.00 but that exceeds his budget. He would like to purchase an AED for that purpose for $1300.00. However there is only $1042.00 in the budget for that in EMS. He would like to pull $257.00 out of the general supplies for structure. This has been discussed with District Clerk Gagliardi and we have the funds. This just has to be adjusted a little bit. He wants to purchase this so it can be used on the engine for main response. Motion was made by District Clerk Gagliardi to purchase the used AED and he will adjust the monies between line numbers. Motion was seconded by Treasurer Robbins. Motion carries. Swain Debris Removal: Chief Tuttle said this has to do with the house in Swains Creek. In the miscellaneous there is a bid for $3600.00. Last time it was $800.00 for the sales office. This is what it would cost us to burn the building down and then have the debris removed. This can be negotiated with the home owner, but he wanted to bring this to the Boards attention. He wants to know if we accept this bid and move forward or reject and forget it, or go into negotiations with the home owner. The home owners are going to have it knocked down and removed anyway so they are going to pay more than this so he can see them pitching in on the price. The training the firefighters will get in usingthe building before it is burned down is very valuable. They will be able to do searches, survival training,then once they are through training they will do a control burn and that in itself is valuable training. Treasurer Robbins restated what ChiefTuttle had said use the building for a month, get to burn it down and allthat is for free. Response was yes. Treasurer Robbins stated all we had to do was pay the $3600.00 to clean up the mess afterwards. Chief said exactly. Treasurer Robbins stated he had no problem with that. Member Brechler asked if it was in the fire budget. Chairman Petullo said this has to be put out for bid before we go any farther . District Clerk Gagliardi stated that the owner was going to have the cost of tearing down the building so why does the fire department have to pay any of the cost. Just loan the facility to us for a while. Member Brechler stated we pass the budget, but we are not diligent to sticking with it. We overspend it on many items, then transfer money to cover those items,and while he knows it is legal, he stillthinks we need to pay more attention to the budget and try to follow it. District Clerk Gagliardi said he thinks t the board is in agreement with Member Brechler, just saying it different. Discussion followed. It was decided that the Chief would go back to the homeowner and see if they will pay for debris removal. We do not have it in the budget to remove the debris. Comments from the Public: No comments . Closed Session: No reason for a closed session. Adjournment: Motioned to adjourn by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motioned seconded by Bob Shackleford and Brad Robbins Motion Carries. It is 13:16 on June 11,2016 and the monthly meeting of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Governing Board is now adjourned.

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 Michael Petullo at 435-682-3225.

Notice of Electronic or Telephone Participation

One or more members of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District may participate electronically or telephonically.

Meeting Information

Meeting Location

3620 Mammoth Rd
Duck Creek Village , 84762
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Notice Posted On

July 13, 2016 02:55 PM

Notice Last Edited On

July 13, 2016 02:55 PM

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