General Information

Government Type

Special Service District

Entity

Cedar Mountain Service District

Public Body

Board of Trustees

Notice Information

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Notice Title

Public Hearing MInutes

Notice Tags

Administrative Services

Notice Type(s)

Hearing

Event Start Date & Time

March 25, 2017 06:00 PM

Event End Date & Time

March 25, 2017 06:00 PM

Event Deadline Date & Time

03/25/17 01:00 AM

Description/Agenda

Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Public Hearing Minutes March 25, 2017 3620 Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT. 84762 Board Members Present: Mike Petullo, Chairman - Absent Frank Gagliardi, District Clerk Brad Robbins, Treasurer Diane Adams, Member Chuck Brechler, Member Bob Shackleford, Member Don VanDine, Member Public in attendance are: Carol Gagliardi, Kevin Davies, Saundy VanDine, Brian Carlson, Dee Carlson, Salli Shackleford, Tom Powell, and Larry Powell. It is 6:00 pm on March 25, 2017. This is a Public Hearing for the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District. All Board Members are present except Mike Petullo. District Clerk Gagliardi states the purpose of this meeting is for the Board to get input from the public on the direction that they want this fire department to go in the future. We are looking at a possible fee increase from presently $125 a year to $200 a year. So, we are not talking massive amounts of money states District Clerk Gagliardi, but we are talking about enough hopefully to accomplish the things that the Board and the Chief feel are important. The input that we have received from the public so far seems to support the direction that we are looking right now. We are holding a series of public hearings and there is this one and two more still scheduled to get as much input as we can. Speaking to the audience he states he thinks this is the first time they have all been to one of these meetings, correct? Thank you. He states that whatever their thoughts are that is what we are after. District Clerk Gagliardi states we will give you a little bit of background since you haven't heard it before and then we will be looking for what your thoughts are. This increase is to go into two specific areas of the budget. It's to go into hiring 4 additional fulltime firefighters. We have 2 right now and it would be to add 4 stating the Chief will go into details on that in a minute. It is also for infrastructure upgrades that the Board determined last year were priorities that we would like to see accomplished in the next 5 to 7 years. We would like to do that without having to borrow any money and without having to go with a bond issue or anything like that because as you know any time you do those things it costs you more money, so we would rather be able to pay cash for everything if we can District Clerk Gagliardi states. He states that is going to be a stretch even with the increase that we are talking about. The infrastructure needs, there's a 3 page list that is in our Strategic Plan that is on our website. A couple of the high points: - 4 additional firefighters was the number one item on the list for the Chief; - A Deputy Chief; - A substation at Swains Creek. Most of Swains is outside of 5 miles from this station so their ISO rating which is what your insurance is based on, is not as good as those areas that are within 5 miles of this station. - The Chief's truck needs replacing; - All of our equipment is old stating 2 of the engines look pretty new but that is because we bought them with new paint jobs; - A substation out at Zion perhaps the folks out at Zion are considering winter snow removal and if they do then we will need to provide response out there in the wintertime. They are obviously more than 5 miles from the station also. - Resurface the parking lots. Both this parking lot and Station 2 down at Elkridge. The parking lots are getting into pretty bad shape as we have resealed each of them several times but they are getting to where that is not going to continue to work for too much longer and at some point we are going to have to resurface those. - This station, the room that you're in right now is a multipurpose room and we have come across times recently over the past few years where there has been multiple entities wanting to use and needing to use this room at the same time. It is a training room. It is a Board meeting room. It is a public meeting room. The list goes on. We only have 3 bays for equipment, parking fire engines and things. We only really own 2 of those. The forest service owns the 3rd one. He states the forest service has use of that anytime they want to and they do that. That means we have to leave equipment either outside which in the winter time is not a good idea or we put it someplace else which makes it not readily available. If we get an ambulance back up here then where are we going to put the ambulance? So we need to look also at expanding this building somewhat. The land that we sit on we don't own, the forest service owns that. We are using it under a special use permit that expires June of next year. The forest service has been unwilling to talk to us about a renewal of that. Part of that he thinks is because of the elections and things like that but we have working on it for 2 years already and they won't talk to us at all. As part of that though there is a probability that we will have to buy the land. There is a Townsite Act, which is the way the forest service transfers land to townships and counties. There has already been a proposal floated that this land that we are on of roughly 4.6 acres plus all the surrounding land be sold, it can't be given away, so we would have to buy it. We would buy our part and then the water conservancy and a couple of other entities would be buying the rest of it. If we have to buy this land, which we are planning on having to do, that means that we have to have cash available to that also. District Clerk Gagliardi states the law requires market value. We have been unable to get a number as to what that is exactly, but the forest service is telling us and the county is telling us we are looking in the $16,000 to $20,000 per acre range. We are sitting on 4.6 acres and what they have planned for us is about 10 acres, so we are looking in the range of $200,000 plus closing costs. - And then replacement equipment for the old apparatus that we have already. It is all in good shape right now. It's in great shape actually, but how long is it going to be. If we are looking 5, 7, 10 years out we need to be looking at how we are going to replace that equipment also. These are the infrastructure things that we are looking at. District Clerk Gagliardi then turns the meeting over to Chief Tuttle. The public was given the printout of Chief Tuttle's PowerPoint presentation to look at as he goes through it. Copies are available at the Fire Station at 3620 Mammoth Creek Road for interested parties We were able to recruit many volunteers in 2014 but recruitment appears to have leveled off and our pool of full time residents seems to be exhausted. In 2015 we lost several volunteers due to relocation, death, and or being unable or unwilling to maintain departmental commitments. Firefighting is extreme and firefighters must be in excellent physical shape to perform on the emergency ground. The average age of the responders at our last three fully involved structure fires was approximately 60 years old. While able to perform at these emergencies, there was considerable strain placed on these responders. Duck Creek Village is primarily a retirement community and as such has an older demographic of residents. By recruiting both inside and outside of our district we could potentially attract younger responders that are not able to live in our area full time. NFIRS (National Fire Incident Reporting System) is a reporting system that we use to qualify for State and Federal funding through grants. NFIRS uses emergency response categories to identify call types. In 2013 we had significant increases in all but one NFIRS series categories. In 2014 we had dramatic increases in all but three NFIRS series categories. In 2015 we continued to have to call volumes maintaining or increasing in all of the NFIRS series categories. In 2016 we continued to maintain our call volumes in all but one of the NFIRS series categories, the 400 series (Hazardous Conditions) We are holding fairly consistent with our responses for the years 2015 and 2016. This slide represents some specific categories in the 100 & 300 NFIRS Series. This does not include incidents like dumpster fires, car fires, false alarms etc. With the addition of two paid firefighter-EMTs we have learned that people come by the station after normal business hours. The on duty firefighters are at the station Friday through Monday from 9:00 am until 7:00 pm while the office staff is at the station Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm. There were 14 walk-ins to the station with emergencies that were attend to by the on duty firefighters after normal business hours. The number 14 only represents citizens that needed an emergency reported and dealt with by the on duty crew. It doesn't include those needing information, directions, a warm place to wait out the storm, etc. Since the full time firefighter positions have been in place the average en route time for personnel and equipment has been less than one minute for the on duty firefighters compared to the on average of fourteen minutes by the volunteer firefighters responding from home. This information shows how a dual response from the paid and volunteer sides of our fire department complement each other. An initial response by our on duty firefighters is enhanced by our volunteer firefighters. This very much needed equipment and personnel that our volunteer firefighters provide is essential to the mission of CMFPD. It should be noted that for more than one response, no personnel or equipment were placed in service from our volunteer side of the department. With the addition of our two full time firefighters there has been a noticeable improvement regarding station and vehicle maintenance. Many projects that had been placed on hold have been completed. The response by our current volunteer firefighters is complemented with the paid firefighter response. With two firefighters on duty around the clock it would add to the volunteer force making all of our responses more efficient and timely, not just the responses that come in from 9 am until 7 pm Friday through Monday. Response times would consistently be reduced and we would have a guarantee of at least two firefighters for initial response. With regards to our response times; with the addition of four paid firefighters; CMFPD would be able to continue the current weekend standard of a unit going into service within one minute for an EMS call and two minutes for a fire call (they have to put on their fire gear). This would be the normal operation 24 hours a day 7 days a week including weekends and holidays. Often, some of our volunteers will not be available for call outs during certain times of the year. With four additional firefighters we would have the ability to provide coverage for emergency calls all year long. These calls would be backed up with our available volunteer force. Just as it is working now 40 hours each week, our volunteers will still respond to the fire station for their gear and equipment but the initial response will already be on their way. The majority of the seasonal residence on the mountain maintain a permanent residence in an urban area and have come to expect short response times when they call 911. They also expect a full crew of professional firefighters ready to handle any given situation. On duty firefighters would make the initial and immediate response while being backed up with volunteers as they report to the fire station and form up in crews bringing needed equipment and manpower. We receive visitors to the station at all hours of the day and night seeking help with a variety of situations. Twenty four hour station coverage would provide better customer service as well as station protection. With the addition of paid firefighters there will be more personnel on the emergency scene. This will lighten the work load of our current responders as well as enabling positions to be filled including Safety Officer and Incident Commander. With our current response force these positions are sometimes filled by persons heavily involved in incident operations. This does not Allow them to see the bigger picture of dangers and hazards affecting the scene and emergency responders. With twenty four hour coverage the station will have someone to answer the phones and front door nearly all of the time. With four additional paid firefighters the fire department would have a minimum of two firefighters available for an immediate response 24-7. With four additional paid firefighters each vehicle can be assigned to a day of the week for detailed cleaning and inspections. Each section of the station can be assigned to a day of the week for detailed cleaning and inspection. This will help reduce operating costs by more consistent vehicle and station maintenance. With 24-7 coverage there is a better chance that someone will be at the station in the event a citizen stops by for questions or concerns. The on duty firefighters will be out and about in uniform and driving fire department apparatus for inspections, training and public education. This lets everyone see what they are paying for. By having paid positions with recruitment both inside and outside our district, we have a chance of bringing in emergency responders that would not normally be here to respond. This would add to our fire department by giving us numbers to share the load. We have a core group of volunteers already dedicated to emergency operations. These individuals put in time and energy not only to respond to emergency calls but to maintain the fleet and equipment; they put in countless hours training to maintain or improve their certifications; they serve our community by helping out with public education and public relations events. This helps everyone in our community. The public education leads to a safer and fire resistant community; the public relations leads to better understanding and better communication in the community; training leads to better incident mitigation and by having a trained force with members certified in firefighting and EMS, our community receives a better ISO rating which can lead to cost reductions with insurance premiums. The core members of our fire department give a considerable amount of their time to make this fire department what it is. By adding four more full time firefighters to our organization I feel that our existing program, while an excellent program, can become an even better program and our fire department a more efficient and productive fire department. This would be the cost for each full time firefighter. The vacation and sick time accounts for the costs associated with overtime at the rate of time and one half to fill in the vacant position. The annual costs for four additional full time Firefighters would be $166,816 The 48 hour on and 96 hour off schedule is a nationally recognized shift rotation in the fire service. It allows for the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District to recruit full time firefighters from outside the fire protection district. We could entice potential employees from all over Southern Utah. We would recruit candidates that are Firefighter II and EMT certified. This would add to our volunteer force and create a more equipped team that could mitigate emergencies that the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District responds to on a daily basis. It benefits the fire department by having more personnel that are trained and ready to respond as part of our team and it benefits the citizens by having at least two trained responders that would be on their way in less than two minutes. No drive time to the station. The on duty firefighters just climb in the rig and go for EMS calls or put on their turnout gear then climb in the rig and go for fire calls and vehicle accidents. This shift schedule seems to be the most beneficial in regards to our pool of employees due to the limited number of times the firefighter would have to drive to and from work. The firefighter would be required to drive to and from work only one time per week allowing for longer commutes to the work place. We could attract firefighters from Kanab, Panguitch and Cedar City easily with the possibility of attracting employees from Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. The Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District is currently a Combination Fire Department. With our existing full time firefighters that are on duty 10 hours a day Friday through Monday we have been able to show better responses to fire and EMS calls as well as show an improvement in station and vehicle maintenance. We have a good number of volunteers that are active during holiday weekends and summer months but most of the year we rely on the few full time or permanent residents that volunteer with our fire department to supplement our coverage gaps. These more available volunteers are much fewer in numbers than our seasonal volunteers. Being a combination fire department with only 40 hours of paid coverage, it leaves 128 hours per week that we rely on our permanent resident volunteers. This aspect of our combination fire department gives us no guarantee that an adequate number of responders will report to the fire station for any given emergency situation. With an immediate initial response we would be better able to make our fire attack when the fires are small before they spread or make our initial assessment of the patient and begin treatment Questions and Comments that arose after Chief Tuttle's presentation: Brian Carlson, Elkridge Resident: This is great up here you're really doing a good job and I fully support the additional expenses. It seems like it is a very small amount for the benefits that you're promising, so that's a good thing. My curiosity first is what are the boundaries of the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District? I'm kind of curious about that. Chief Tuttle: There's a map in the bay I can show you. Basically you are looking at highway 89 all the way from mile marker 107-108 at the county line all the way down to 101 1/2 and extends all the way to the Kane County line around mile marker 22 on Highway 14. Brian Carlson: So any property owner inside of that area regardless if it is Duck Creek, Swains Creek, whatever, they will be assessed the extra $75? Chief Tuttle: All the lots. Brian Carlson: Every lot even if it doesn't have a structure on it? Chief Tuttle: Correct. That is the only way we can do it. When we were formed as a district it was a fee based on the number of lots. All the lots whether developed or not are assessed. District Clerk Gagliardi: The 20 cents that Chief mentioned, about half of that would go towards payroll. The other half of it, roughly, would go towards the infrastructure that I mentioned earlier. So it is the combination of all of those things that we are looking at. Chief Tuttle: It's not just for the firefighters; that is my focus. I'll admit it. I'm responsible for 94 square miles and everybody within those square miles. District Clerk Gagliardi: Roughly half is for payroll. You are looking at about $160,000 to $170,000 and when you divide that amongst the number of lots that we have roughly 10 cents of that 20 cents goes to payroll the other 10 cents the other $160,000-$170,000 is for capital improvements. It's not a lot of money for the department or the district annually. Our budget right now just so you know is roughly $400,000 a year. This would increase it to close to $800,000 a year not counting snow. Snow is a totally different issue. Just for clarity, we are not looking at increasing the snow assessment at all right now. So, we are talking just on the fire side. Brian Carlson: How do you guys coordinate or work with Alton? I mean when you get down to that boundary area so to speak? The reason I ask that, living in Elkridge, I guess we're right at that eastern boundary and a couple of times in the past year or two we've lived there, there's been a medical response needed and both times Alton was there. The other question related to that is when we call 911 I'm pretty sure our phone number in Elkridge says Alton. How do they know to call you guys? How does that whole process work? Chief Tuttle: When you give them the address, dispatch has it in their computer system and they will be able to send them to our address. But you are right, if you googled the fire station right here, it would say it is in Alton. Once you call in, they are able to race your number back to you and find out where you are calling from. Brian Carlson: Do they then task the closest available resource? Chief Tuttle: Good question. No, we are Fire and EMS in our area but Alton Ambulance is through Kane County Hospital and they have exclusive rights for transport anywhere in Kane County. So they have I believe 5 Ambulances: one in Big Water; one in Kanab; one in Orderville; one in Alton; and a spare. Brian Carlson: Just kind of a general question, there is a dramatic increase in vacation rentals through the whole county. The rentals are okay, but for us personally for full time residents, us specifically in Elkridge what I have discovered is, and this has happened, when there's fire restrictions because of really dry conditions it doesn't apply to private property and you have people from Vancouver lighting big fires on rental properties. We're trying to do something with just some common sense HOA rules that maybe you guys could help us out with. It's spooky sometimes. You just don't know. District Clerk Gagliardi: For clarification for you, actually the fire restrictions do apply to the private properties. The conversation continues on this topic of fires between the public and Board Members. Brian Carlson: We have had a house up here for five years, lived here full time for two years and we really have to consider ourselves very fortunate because when you look at other parts of the country with wildfires and houses; there are thousands of houses. There are not that many houses here. If something bad happens, that's the end of Duck Creek. Equivalent things happen every single year around the whole country, so I totally encourage you guys to be aggressive, to up your public education so we can obtain that and not have a disaster happen here. Please do what you can. District Clerk Gagliardi: Well, that is exactly why we are having these hearings to try to get this kind of information out and to try to get feedback on what it is what direction you want this fire department to go in. It sounds like you're in favor of where we're looking at going. Just speaking for myself I was not in favor of hiring fulltime firefighters, but over the past year I saw the number of times when there was not very many people up here, volunteers, to respond to incidents. The one two nights ago was just the Chief and one other volunteer and that was it. It was a smoke alarm, but we were fortunate that it was a false alarm. Had it not been, two people trying to put out a structure fire, tell me the last time you saw that on TV. You normally see a dozen people or more. Two fulltime firefighters on duty at any given time is not an adequate response, that's just an initial get there and get started. We still need and require volunteers. But I have come around to where if we had two folks on duty all the time it makes me sleep better at night knowing that we are able to provide at least a basic level of response. We're not in a situation where there are no volunteers available to respond or there is one or something like that. That has happened up here. Like Chief said, he has gone on calls by himself because there were no volunteers available and that's not a situation we want to find ourselves in. Larry Powell, Duck Creek Resident: I'm curious, in the winter time even though there's much less people here, but there's fires going all the time instead of in the summer, is it an increase of that nature? Chief Tuttle: Of the structure fire while I've been here, I'd say probably about seventy-five percent are in the winter time because of chimney fires. Larry Powell: And heaters falling or whatever. Chief Tuttle: Exactly. District Clerk Gagliardi: We were putting one out while it was snowing. The challenge there is that we are so spread out. Look at Elkridge even, look at your neighbors. How close are your neighbors and how long has that fire burned before you would even notice that? What condition is the structure in at that point? At the very least you've got to see a lot of smoke come out of the windows. Think what's going on inside to get that. And, probably you're going to be seeing flames before you notice that there is a problem. If you're seeing flames and remember what the Chief said about how fast fire grows. It's a challenge. Chief Tuttle: Well, on that particular fire you are talking about, I was here at the station when the call came in. I drove straight there. It was in Swains Creek and I waited about 18 minutes for people to show up and get here. I did my 360. I walked around it, so I had plenty of time to figure it out by the time we all got there. That really sunk into me that we need, I need somebody right away so I can get there and get started. Get something going, right now, while we are waiting for the cavalry. District Clerk Gagliardi: And so far this year we've had nine, ten incidents already this year. Chief Tuttle: Yes, around ten in 2017. District Clerk Gagliardi: So, since the 1st of the year; and a good number of those have been when our fulltime guys were not here. Chief Tuttle: Strangely enough, I couldn't find classes in Southern Utah for Advanced EMT so I got the two fulltime guys, myself, and two volunteers to travel to Las Vegas and they took the class at CSN. It was good training and a good class, but it left us vulnerable. I was nervous the whole time. End of August we started and it was just one of those things. The call volumes stayed consistent but they all occurred on the weekends and that's when people are mostly here, so we were able to make it. We were able to handle the calls and I think we only had 3 or 4 that occurred midweek when no one was here. So it was solely a volunteer response. I wasn't here to respond, completely volunteer. We did pretty good on those calls. One of them we had about a 20 minute response time to get on scene of a car accident. The other calls were probably about 8 or 10 minute response time because they were closer and we had people right here. Tom Powell, Duck Creek Resident: On the taxes, you're saying that we pay $125 now? District Clerk Gagliardi: This year it's $125. Last year it was $85. Tom Powell: That is a substantial increase up to the $200 from that. District Clerk Gagliardi: It is and we want to have as much input as we can so that we can figure out if that's the smartest move to make. As a little background, I could not find when the fee was increased last. I went back 10 years and could not find any increase over the last 10 years. We are operating with the same revenues that we operated with 10 plus years ago and you all know the cost of things has gone up. Tom Powell: And you feel that would last for how long? Say 20 cents a day for how long when you have multiple lots? It's not 20 cents but it could be 60 or 80 cents a day, but then how long do you feel that that would last before everything got built and hopefully would level out? District Clerk Gagliardi: I can't answer that, I don't know. I don't know that any of these Board Members will even be here 10 years from now. The conversation continues on this between the public and Board Members. District Clerk Gagliardi: Other comments, anything else? Motion to close the meeting by Member Brechler. Motion was seconded by Treasurer Robbins. It is 7:09 pm on March 25, 2017 and the Public Hearing for Cedar Mountain Fire Protection is closed. Minutes Approved by _____________________________________Date__________________________ Frank Gagliardi, District Clerk Signature on file at 3620 Mammoth Creek Road

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 Creek Rd
Duck Creek Village, 84762
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Contact Name

Suzy Polnisch

Contact Email

suzy.polnisch@cedarmountainservicedistrict.gov

Contact Phone

(435)682-3225

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

April 17, 2017 12:20 PM

Notice Last Edited On

April 17, 2017 12:20 PM

Deadline Date

March 25, 2017 01:00 AM

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