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

July 2017 Minutes Final

Notice Tags

Administrative Services

Notice Type(s)

Meeting

Event Start Date & Time

July 8, 2017 10:00 AM

Event End Date & Time

July 8, 2017 01:00 PM

Description/Agenda

Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Minutes July 8, 2017 3620 Mammoth Creek Road, Duck Creek Village, UT. 84762 Board Members Present: Mike Petullo, Chairman Frank Gagliardi, District Clerk Brad Robbins, Treasurer Absent Diane Adams, Member Chuck Brechler, Member Bob Shackleford, Member Don VanDine, Member July 8, 2017 at 10:01 A.M. the Cedar Mountain Fire Protection District Board of Trustees monthly meeting is now in session. We have a quorum, with one member absent. Dru Runion will fill in as Chief. Invocation Pledge of Allegiance Agenda: Chairman Comments: On July 13, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. the Kane County Water Conservancy is doing their monthly meeting here at the station. All board members are invited to the dinner and to the monthly meeting where they will discuss the Township Act. All board members are encouraged to attend. Utah Association of Special Districts will hold their conference in Layton, Utah on Nov. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. We will have to have the names of people attending next month in order to get the convention rate. The Board Members should have received an email from the Utah State Legislature the President of the Senate and the from the Speaker of the House. The letter basically covers limited government purchases including local districts, special service districts, and local independent entities. The letter has to do with documented evidence of fraud, waste abuse and poor management among special use entities. There is a check list that went along with the letter and Chairman Petullo found a couple of things in the internal controls. Under recruiting qualified personnel the staff is supposed to avoid recruiting individuals to serve as Board Members. The other thing is local entities follow an open and objective recruiting process when filling staff positions and hiring outside contractors. We do follow that part of it, but hiring relatives, and business associate of the board, we have a relative that is related to the Chief and we did advertise and there were no other candidates, and at the end there is a clause that states if we cannot find a qualitied candidate and we have documented advertising and we can't find someone, we can hire them. Minutes: District Clerk Gagliardi made the motion to approve the minutes. Motion was seconded by Don VanDine. Minutes approved. Treasurer's Report: Mountain America CIP Account 340,043.31 Snow Emergency Funds State Bank 245,779.16 Snow Removal Funds State Bank 47,830.12 Zions Fire Checking 232,239.12 Zions Savings 255,238.30 Total Checking & Savings $1,121,130.01 The Treasure's report was given by District Clerk Gagliardi. Member Brechler asked if the snow contracts were fully paid for the year and the answer was yes for the 2016, 2017 snow season. Motion to approve the Treasures' report by Member Adams. Seconded by Member Brechler. Motion carried. District Clerk's Report: Frank Gagliardi: District Clerk Gagliardi stated the expenditures for last month were normal. Credit card expenditures we just over $8000.00 nickel and dime stuff; $384.00 for additional signs for the pancake breakfast and $2880.00 for the Cloud setup for the Firehouse software. Unusual expenditures for the vehicle maintenance; the vehicles are getting old and the Chief's truck is down having about $2000.00 worth of repairs for the universal joints, and some metal shavings someplace which is never a good sign. In the last year the department has spent a good down payment on a truck in repairs to this one. The new chief's vehicle should jump to the top of the priority list. We are right on the money for the money in the bank for the upcoming snow season. We are working with the County Treasurer in certifying the actual number of taxable parcels. We have a challenge as the county is the only one that maintains the records of actual taxable parcels. We do not have that, but we do have to certify to the county that they are charging the right amount to the right people. District Clerk Gagliardi asked last year for a list of all the taxable properties and again this year and did not get them. The 2018 budget is in the works and he has sent all the board members a revised draft, about two weeks ago and Treasurer Robbins is the only one that has responded. Any thoughts or comments he needs them as soon as possible. September we need a budget that can presented to the public to be discussed. We are still undergoing the State of Utah Retirement audit. It is a standard every four year audit; nothing unusual and no sufficient issues. We have to certify to the state all of our ineligible employees. That is all everyone that is not a full time employee. There has to be a separate form for each one. Chairman Petullo remembered what the other comment was he wanted to make and that is there are three candidates for the four board positions for this election cycle. We are still in the write in period and they can file here. No write in candidates as of this date. District Clerk Gagliardi stated if there are no write-in candidates he will send a letter to the county clerk that we do not need to have anyone on the ballot, the election is not required. If we have more than one write-in candidate we will have to have an election. Fire Chief Report: Given by Dru Runion in the absence of the Chief. Response: We have responded to 26 calls for service since the last Board meeting. 11 EMS Calls 3 Fire Calls 2 ATV Accidents 6 Fire Pit Approval Inspections 4 Public Assist calls Fleet: Vehicle Maintenance: E-71 is back in service with the siren speaker having been replaced by on duty personnel. E-47 had its' alternator freeze up which caused the serpentine belt to break. The vehicle was towed back to our fire station where it was repaired by on duty personnel. It is back in service. Chief Tuttle's vehicle is in the shop for repair, the u-joints need to be replaced. EMT Class: We have applied for and need approved for an EMT class to be held at our main fire station. So far we have five students that have that have expressed an interest but none have committed financially. The class begins August 5th and runs through October 29th with classes every Saturday and Sunday excluding the Labor Day weekend. The department is covering the cost of the class with the exception of books, testing and background checks. The estimated cost for each student is approximately $300.00. Firefighter I & II Academy: Panguitch Lake Fire Department will be hosting a Firefighter I & II Academy that was scheduled to begin later this month. We are waiting to hear if the academy has been postponed due to the Brian Head Fire. We have 2 members that signed up for this academy. Brian Head Fire: On June 17, 2017 CMFPD was requested to send our Type 4 Wildland Engine (Engine 74) to Brian Head for initial attack. Unfortunately the engine broke down while en route to the fire and had to be towed back. In the evening on June 21, 2017 CMFPD was asked to send a Type 1 engine to Panguitch Lake for structure protection by the Garfield County Fire Warden Josh Soper as he was in charge of the structural protection in the Panguitch Lake Area. When we were unable to man a vehicle with the required four personnel, Warden Soper changed the request to a Type 4 engine with two personnel and water tender. We were able to recall two firefighters for that assignment and scheduled for additional firefighters that weekend. Engine 74 responded to Panguitch area and reported to Warden Soper for structure protection detail. With the inability to commit for two week duration, Engine 74 was released after completing their first shift. With the type 1 incident command team in place, it was decided to keep rotating personnel in and out of the fire without long term commitments from our organization and second CMFPD was the only initial attack agency within the Cedar City Ranger District of the Dixie National Forest as all other state and federal resources were committed to the Brian Head Fire. 2017 Pancake Breakfast: This year's Pancake Breakfast was a huge success with received donations in excess of $13,000.00 We served approximately 1000 people breakfast. Attractions at the event included a bounce house, fire safety trailer, Classic Air Ambulance, emergency preparedness booth, fire safety booth, Brian Head Fire information booth, spraying a fire hose, riding in a fire engine, snow cone machine, popcorn machine and Sparky the Fire Dog greeting guests. 4th of July Parade in the Village: CMFPD participated in the 4th of July parade held in the Village. We had E-71, E-72, R-70, T-72, E-74 and Sq-71 representing CMFPD in the parade. EMT training class is not just for Firefighters it is for anyone who wants to attend, stated District Clerk Gagliardi. We would really like for them to become members of the fire department and function in that capacity officially. If they just want the education and certification that is fine. They just need to talk to the chief. Old Business: Townsite Act and Station Expansion: Chairman Petullo stated that hopefully information will be provided on July 13th at 5:00 p.m. There has been no communication with anyone regard the Townsite Act. Swains Creek Property: The offer was submitted to the owner of the property. The lawyer has been unsuccessful in contacting the gentleman. The time period of the offer has expired and he has continued to try and contact the gentleman and there is no response. Member Adams asked if the property owner knows the attorney is representing us on the sale? Chairman Petullo stated at the last meeting the property owner was upset that the attorney had contacted him. He called back and they chatted, but there was never any discussion about accepting or rejecting the offer that we submitted. The offer expired and he has never made a counter offer. KCEMS/CMFPD MOU: The MOU with Kane County Hospital has died. The administrator did feel their attorney should meet with our attorney. Chairman Petullo was in Panguitch and met with the hospital administrator for Garfield Memorial Hospital. In Garfield County the ambulance service is maintained by the county, does not have anything to do with the hospital. Here in Kane County the hospital runs the ambulance service. Chairman Petullo got the number for the EMS Coordinator for Garfield County. He spoke with that person and to summarize the conversation she feels that it would be a waste to apply for a hardship with the state, because you need Kane County Hospital permission to run transport here. She did give Chairman Petullo Guy Dansie's assistant's number. Guy Dansie is the person that runs the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services for the state. He was at the Nov. meeting. Chairman call his assistant and explained the situation about restocking and the fact we wrote a MOU, had the attorney review it, sent it to the hospital and they had their attorney review it and it came back without the restocking paragraph. Chairman Petullo thought he would hear back by now, but hasn't. District Clerk Gagliardi asked if we were waiting for a call back from Dansie or his assistant. Conversation continued. Oxygen: The Chief has purchased ten smaller oxygen bottles. They have been transported to Waterman Welding and are being filled. The Chief decided to do that instead of having the big oxygen tank he wanted to buy and have refilled. It is cheaper to do it this way. Temp help: We approved $3000.00 to hire temporary help. We had three people apply. Candidate #1 was interviewed by Diane Adams, the Chief, and the Chairman. Candidate #2 was interview by John Garrison and the Chairman. Candidate #3 was interview by the Chief and the Chairman down in Kanab. We selected Candidate #1 and she starts on Monday at 10 a.m. She will be going through all the files and archive what we need to keep. Handbook: The Chief has been in contact with Mark Bednarik and they are working on it. District Clerk Gagliardi said it is not as easy to do as originally thought. We have the Kane County handbook and the Salt Lake City Unified book and Mark is going through those and the comments the Chief and the District Clerk gave him. Mark has a full time job, but is working on complying a handbook. Any volunteers that would like to help out, help is always welcome. Station Floor: District Clerk Gagliardi stated the plan right now is to strip the floor and re-polish and see if we can get it in better shape. The estimates the Chief has are in excess of $3000.00 that we don't have. He realized any kind of replacement will be next year; we have other priorities right now. Kost Fence: Nancy and Bill Kost have property in Meadow View with adjourning property in Lost Creek. Last month Treasurer Robbins stated we needed sometime in writing from them, she did send an email that the Chairman forwarded to the board. They are insisting that the fence was damaged by Brandon Harris of Harris Construction who plows that area. Bob Shackleford has been out there and taken pictures of it, Chief and District Clerk Gagliardi took pictures of it and the Chairman has looked at it. There is no doubt that the fence is damaged, but how it happened can't be sure. The Chairman has spoken with her twice, once on the phone and once by email. The Chairman has talked with Brandon twice and some of the fence is damaged is not even on the road. It goes around the corner. The Chairman has talked with the attorney. The reason the contractor was paid the funds, we cannot legally with hold the money. The contract does state damages are between the property owner and the contractor. Brandon is the contractor. Brandon is insisting he did not do the damages. The Chairman sent Nancy Kost Brandon's phone number and talk with him. Apparently she has a witness that gave an amount of snow on the fence. District Clerk Gagliardi stated the fence not near the road at 90 degrees to the road and back 50 feet or so showed the same type of damage for the most part that the fence right along the road did. If you look at the vertical posts they appeared deteriorated and rotted, weakened in some way. It did not look like additional stress was put on the fence by the road. New Business: John Harris Facebook Contributions: Harrisell LLC talked with the Fire Chief about putting up a face book page, picture of a wildland fire with a firefighter in front of it and there was some verbiage to the effect help our firefighter at CMFPD and they were collecting money. When Chairman Petullo heard about it he asked them to take it the site down, because the Board did not authorize it and yet CMFPD was mentioned there. The Chairman was uncomfortable and wanted everybody to weigh in on this. Taylor would like to go over how this process worked. They wanted to help out our local fire department. He talked with Chief Tuttle about donations through the website. It wasn't done through Facebook. They are marketing specialists and had talked to us about building our website etc. He told Chief Tuttle about the idea and he thought it was a great idea but any way to help out CMFPD financially would be great. Chief Tuttle gave them a boot to put in the gift shop as well. He went ahead and activated it to allow donations to come through their website. They did not collect any credit card information. Everything was done through PayPal. PayPal does not give any information except the persons email address. PayPal handles the credit card transactions. They did not know it had to have board approval and in that seven hour period they collected $2000.00. There is a list of the people that donated and they a have a cashier check in the amount of $2000.00. In regard to credit card processing fees there is a 2.9 percent processing fee. Duck Creek is covering the processing fees, so whatever is donated is getting donated to CMFPD. They are also donating $64.00 as well. He stated they are collecting the money and they are liable for the taxes on the money, however they are taking the money and donating it to CMFPD, so CMFPD is not liable, Duck Creek is. Conversation continued on file at CMFPD. Chairman Petullo stated everything discussed must be written down from the so the attorney can look everything over. District Clerk Gagliardi stated there are to separate issues: accepting the check and type of policy for accepting all donations, opening the door for the people to donate if they can't be up here to drop off donations. Chairman Petullo state there is a motion to accept the check and a 2nd motion to have an agreement or policy between a third party and CMFPD on how this is actually being done. Member Adams made the motion to accept the $2000.00 also in this motion this is a one-time exception. For taking the money donated for this place. The motion was seconded by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion carries. Member Adams would like to make another motion allowing them to post on their webpage that the money has been donated to CMFPD. So it can be put to rest that it was legal. Motion seconded by Don VanDine. Motion carried. If this is going to be done in the future, then it needs to written exactly what they are doing, out so it can be presented to our attorney. Motion was made by Member Brechler not to have this happen again until a policy is made involving 3rd parties. Member Adams seconded the motion. Motion carried. Brian Head Fire: Dru Runion re-read from the Chief's report about the Brain Head fire as stated above. Chairman Petullo stated there were a lot of questions. The rumor started to swirl that the district was in fire danger. At one point, during the fire it was approximately 8 miles from the furthest point of Meadow View Heights. However there is a lava rock bed between the fire and Meadow View, in addition to a burn scar from a previous fire. So the folks fighting the fire thought there was never any danger to Meadow View. No one was ever in any danger in the whole district. There were questions why we weren't doing anything and we had contacted Alton which we have an MOU with to use their Town Hall for sheltering folks if we had to evacuate people and they had nowhere to go. In addition to that we contacted the Red Cross and they were going to provide cots and partitions so we could separate men and women and they were going to provide food. The Town Hall is in the gym. There are kitchen facilities there and shower facilities. That was covered. The admin staff, Cheryl and Betty had made plans to take some stuff in case of evacuation and go to Station 2. Records, radios, plus the Chief's list. There were also volunteers here to help move the equipment to Station 2 if we had to leave. There were so many calls for first few days especially with the heavy smoke we had ladies come in for 24 hour shift to relieve the volunteer fire fighter and admin. We were the structural firefighting folks for everybody. We sent out several Everbridge alerts and we were getting information, not necessarily about the fire, but the people manning the phones were telling people to go to utahfireinfo.gov for updates on the fire. Red Cross brought up some cleaning supplies for here for smoke damage to cabins, but Chairman Petullo did not think it was necessary here. In the event that you left your windows open and there was smoke damage to your furniture. We were ready fortunately we did not have to leave. AEMT Supplies or Equipment: The Chief was supposed to get prices and Dru Runion stated he had prices of $4200.00 for EMT supplies and equipment. Motion was made to approve up to the maximum of $5000.00 for the Chief to use outfitting the EMT rigs to meet the AEMT standards by District Clerk Gagliardi. Motion was seconded by Don VanDine. Motion carries. Mike Melton State MOU: At the last meeting Mike Melton gave an overview for an MOU that we would sign with the state. He was going to approach the County Commissioners because there were criteria that we had to meet as a district and the county had to meet as a county. Chairman Petullo signed the MOU and sent it to the attorney he pointed out some liability issues. Example: If the county did not agree to the MOU, it was gone anyway. The MOU has been signed and in Mike Melton's office. Panguitch Doctor: License was resubmitted transferring the medical director duties from Dr. Ott to Dr. Mooney in Panguitch. We are still in the process of applying for the EMT Quick Response Unit through the Utah BEMS. We are finalizing the details of our Medical Protocols with Dr. Mooney. We will be applying for an upgrade in designation to Advance EMT for E-71 and the Chief's vehicle. We will need to purchase addition equipment and medical supplies to operate these two vehicles as AEMT Quick Response Vehicles. BEMS has a minimum equipment list that we have to comply with to achieve the designation upgrade. Member Adams asked if this was the $4200.00 that was asked for. Acting Chief Dru Runion answered yes. Person from audience asked why we were going out of county for a medical director. Chairman Petullo answered that we can go anywhere for a medical direct. Dr. Ott is extremely buy and gave his blessing for us to go with Dr. Mooney. Person asked if this is why the hospital balked at re stocking us. Chairman Petullo stated no this happened after the fact. They balked first and this just happened recently when Garfield Medical asked if they could place their medical mobile unit here on Tues. and Thurs. afternoons. Dr. Mooney was on the Medical Mobile Unit. He toured the station and Chief Tuttle talk with him about being our Medical Director and he volunteered. When Kane County placed the ambulance here before the Medical Director was in Cedar City. Dr. Mooney is the Medical Director for the county of Garfield and is more accessible than Dr. Ott. Dr. Ott is onboard with this and this is a recent thing stated District Clerk Gagliardi. The hospital administrator for Kane County had refused to sign this MOU month before this ever came to pass. This is very recent. Kane County has the licenses for the county, so we can't use Garfield County ambulance here without Kane County's approval, which wouldn't happen as there is money involved. Conversion continued. Blitzfire Portable Ground Monitors: Chairman Petullo stated he had a quote from the Chief regarding the Blitzfire Portable Ground Monitors. This is the thing that he wanted to purchase from the monies raised by the fund raiser. There are two kinds. One that swivels and one that doesn't and there are some other specs here that he passed around. The one that doesn't swivel is $2820.00 for one and the one that does swivel is $3480.00 and he wants three. District Clerk Gagliardi explained that these are portable monitor that does not require the firefighter to be sitting right next to it while it is spraying water. You can put it on the ground without someone holding it. Motion was on the table to allow the Chief to purchase three of the Blitzfire Portable Ground Monitors from the Pancake Breakfast monies. Motion was made by Bob Shackleford, seconded by Member Adams. Motion carries. Kane County Hospital Ambulance: No discussion as this has previously been discussed. Comments from the Public: Sally Shackleford wanted to thank everyone for their hard efforts on the pancake breakfast. In turn she was thanked for all her help. Closed Session: No reason. Adjournment: Motion was made by Frank Gagliardi to adjourn. Seconded by Member Adams. Motion carries. It is July 8, 2017 at 12:13 p.m. The Cedar Mountain Fire Protection Monthly Meeting is now adjourned. Minutes Approved by _________________________________________Date_______________ Mike Petullo, CEM Chairman Signed copy is 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

August 15, 2017 12:46 PM

Notice Last Edited On

August 15, 2017 12:46 PM

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