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Board Meeting of the Nutrioso Volunteer Fire District Saturday, June 13, 2009 The Meeting was called to order at 9:05 am. At the Roll Call, present were Paul Mohr, Nathan Castillo, and Susan Lee members of the Nutrioso Volunteer Fire District Board (NVFD Board). Bill Jackson NVFD Chief was presen Call to the Public There were questions from members of the community: 1. Bruce Day asked if this was a Volunteer Fire District. Paul Mohr Chair responded that we hired a Fire Chief recently, and that Chris Morris Fire Chief of Vernon is a consultant until Bill Jackson, NVFD Chief has adequate training. Paul stated that we have monthly public meetings and where all NVFD business is discussed. All community members are welcome to attend. An Agenda is posted prior to the meetings on the bulletin board in the post office. In previous meetings of the Board, and noted in the minutes was the discussion about hiring a Chief. 2. Check Pemberton asked if the minutes could be sent to mailboxes. The Board stated that might be possible. It would be about $100/month, which may be prohibitive. (There may be other alternatives such as emailing to interested people). 3. Claude Montonye stated that he never knew about the Fire District until he got his tax bill, and wondered how much the Chief is paid. Paul stated that a petition was signed by over ½ the registered voters in the district, and that the Chief is paid $40,000, while Alpine Fire Dpt pays their part time Chief $30,000. Chris Morris stated this is on the low side for the area. 4. Cray Day said that community members have been left out of the loop. Everyone wants fire protection, but this should be a volunteer fire department. 5. Chuck Pemberton wanted to know if the tax rates will go up. Paul responded they will not for 2010, but residents should check their valuation as this may go up causing the taxes to go up. 6. Bill Jackson stated he has drafted a newsletter on what the District has accomplished to date, and after review by the Board, it will be sent out and will let community members know what has been accomplished. 7. Claude Montonye wanted to know why we did not annex with Alpine Fire Dpt. Susan responded that we would still have to pay taxes even if annexed, and Chris responded that we could not annex unless we had contiguous property with Alpine, which we do not have. 8. Chris stated that our mil rate of $1.33 is low, as the maximum is $3.25. A full time Chief is needed to complete grant administration, administrative paperwork and build a fire department from the ground up. 9. Claude Montonye asked if NVFD was working with ISO. Chris stated the fire district is not ready for ISO ratings as we have to have qualified personnel. Bill stated we do have two volunteers and Paul stated we are taking volunteers, and asked the community members if they were willing to volunteer. Chris stated he has two volunteers over 60 years old. 10. Chuck Pemberton asked about Ralph Stayner. Nathan responded that Ralph was our interim Chief, and volunteered as much as he could, but he had other interests and that Ralph had recommended we have Chris Morris consult for us to get the Fire District up and running. 11. Chris stated his qualifications. Bill was asked how close he was to qualifications. Bill stated that he had been an EMT, and was going to get his refresher next semester. He spent 32 years in the Forest Service from the ground up on engines, crews, helicopters, was a Fire Management Officer at the Alpine Ranger District and Assistant Forest Fire Management Officer at the Supervisors office in Springerville. He has worked on Incident Management Teams on very large fires that included structural fires. He is Operations Section Chief qualified which included working with wildland and structural fires. He also worked on a multi-million dollar budget while in fire management with the Forest Service. 12. Bill stated that we have 3 engines, and all of them currently run. We have 2- 700 gallon engines, and a 500 gallon wildland brush truck. 13. Bill has worked with the Alpine and Eagar Fire Departments in the development of an agreement to cover emergency services in Nutrioso, where those departments will bill NVFD for services instead of billing the patients. 14. The NVFD was asked about the water tank outside the Community Center. Bill is working with Apache County to move the water tank that is outside the Community Center to Dry Valley or Auger Canyon for use by the Fire District. This tank was placed by the County, and has never been hooked up to the Community Center. 15. Nathan stated that we have a well on Leonard and Phyllis Roger’s property across the old Highway from the NVFD location. There is a three way agreement for the well with Terry Reidhead (who is currently using the well), the Roger’s, and the NVFD. The NVFD is currently working to put the piping across Terry Reidhead’s property to get water to the NVFD site. 16. Bruce Day and Chuck Pemberton asked how large the station would be. Bill and Nathan stated that it is currently designed to be a two bay to fit 6 trucks with office space, and restrooms. The design of the building will be such that it can be added on as we grow. Bill is applying for a grant for construction of the station, and looking for a consultant to assist him in writing up the grant. This is a nationwide stimulus funded grant. If awarded, it would be 2010 before any funding would be available. Phyllis Rogers asked if we would need to pay the grant back. Nathan stated we would not have to pay it back, and stated we had already received a small grant for Wildland firefighting training and equipment. 17. Rachel Kuenstler CPA stated that she does monthly accounting of the fire district funds, and that there is a yearly review of the financials. 18. Rachel stated that she lives in Alpine, and has seen their Fire Department grow, and the insurance go down until the Rodeo/Chediski fire when many insurance companies dropped coverage or increased the rates. Chris stated that Vernon ended up with an ISO rating of an 8B for a 5 mile radius of the station, and within 1000 feet of the hydrant, they are at an ISO of 5. Chris stated that 50% of the ISO rating is water supply. Chuck Pemberton asked about a watertender. Bill stated we would contract out water tenders, and has talked with Terry Reidhead about this issue. Bill is working with the Pinetop Fire Chief to obtain a 3700 gallon watertender. He hopes it will be free. It will need an experienced driver. Chuck Pemberton could drive it. 19. Check Pemberton asked if anyone had approached George Simpson about being a Chief, and Paul stated that he had several times. 20. Bill asked John Senffner to talk about his qualifications. They include being retired from Chandler fire service. He has been a Lt. Chief of Training and many other positions in volunteer and paid fire departments. He has extensive knowledge in structural fire fighting and inspections, but not much in wildland fire fighting. John will volunteer with the NVFD. 21. Bill is working with NPC to provide training on our side of the mountain for Luna, Alpine, Greer, St Johns, and Eagar. There needs to be 10 – 15 people to attend training to get classes over here. 22. Tax increases and Board membership was discussed. Paul stated that Board members, including school board members, have the authority to increase taxes without a vote. If someone does not like what the Board is doing, they are encouraged to come to the monthly meetings, and run for Board membership, or vote the Board out. At the last election, there were no other Board members running, so the current Board members were re-elected without being on the ballot. Only if a district floats a bond does this have to be voted on. 23. Cray Day stated she appreciated what the Board is doing, and feels the Board is getting beat on. Nathan stated that we would like the community to come to the meetings, as we are trying to get a fire department that will take care of us, but it will take money and time to get going. Chris stated that the Board is not compensated, and Colleen Jackson stated that the Board spends many hours working on issues.
Reports and Correspondence: Treasurers Report: Rachel Kuenstler CPA stated that she did not get the financial data from the county so these are preliminary reports she has prepared. Rachel stated that under the equipment rental is expenses at the building site. The Capital expenses included site prep and fees for the building and storage shed. The vehicle repairs of $2400 include repairs of all the donated vehicles. The Accounting fees include the financial review by Jim Saunders. The types of expenses in May are about normal. Rachel will update and finalize when she gets the Apache County records. Chris stated the 2nd half of the FDAT taxes did not come in. Minutes: The minutes were read and approved. Chief’s Report: Bill has the signed agreements with Alpine and Eagar for emergency services and payment of services by the NVFD. He provided copies to the Board. Arizona Fire District Association (AFDA) has a new online reporting system for their directory. Bill has updated our directory and has changed the log on and email address. He provided the Board with the updated information. Bill presented the NVFD newsletter to the Board for review and will get it out by Monday to all of the PO boxes in Nutrioso. Bill asked about Alpine, but that would cost another $100, and the board felt it would be better to concentrate on Nutrioso, but put a newsletter up in the Alpine post office, and mail a copy to the Bush Valley Craft Club. Bill has only heard back from one of the 4 financial institutes for financing the Fire Dpt building. One declined, and he was supposed to hear from the other two last week but did not. He will follow up on this next week. Bill has discussed with ADEQ the burn permitting process and received a Delegation of Authority to issue the permits. Chris stated the Fire Marshal has helped with the process for Vernon. Bill stated he has met with 3 locals to design the water system and will get packages from them back by June 19th, and can then get quotes for contracting out the pipes and trenching to get the well water across the old highway. Bill will send the bids to the Board for review when he gets them. Bill showed items he will sell at the June 20th Alpine Fire Department 15th anniversary booth, and at the Nutrioso BBQ. These items will be sold, and the profits would provide donations for the NVFD. Coloring books on fire safety will be provided to kids for free. Bill has also purchased reflective numbers for gates so that emergency services can see house numbers. Bill will visit homes later this month and talk about the NVFD and provide numbers for homes that need them. Bill met with the County Fire Resource Managers in Phx last week on Mutual aid guidelines on the equipment available inside and outside counties. Bill has made a request to Vickers for a grant writing bid for the fire station funding. Chris stayed that Overby will contact Bill about this same bid. Cray Day stated she could assist with the grant. Bill stated that all safety items on the 3 engines have been repaired, so all engines run. Bill stated that a radio tech out of Payson will be coming to Nutrioso on the 17th and 18th to look at the TV tower site and the Alpine South Mountain site to see what would be needed for site development and what would be the most cost effective use of both sites. Building Staff Report: The committee is on hold until we hear back from the financial institutes as to how much they will let the NVFD borrow. Nathan stated there is a 4 inch blow off hydrant on the old highway, before the sawmill that can fill up a truck below the site. NVFD will have a 20,000 gallon water tank for fire use only at the site. The water system needs to be put in before the building can be started. Most of the designers so far want to build a very large station like for a large city. All three of the engines are currently in Nathan’s garage. Any dirt fill will be engineered to make sure it is compacted enough. Communications: Susan has not heard back from White Mountain Communications. She will contact Verizon next week to see if they are interested in the repeater and tower site.
Summary of Activities: Already discussed. Unfinished Business: Budget: The budget has been approved and will be published next week. The Board will adopt the budget in July after it has been published. Equipment: Chris provided us with 2 nozzles that were retrofitted for $210.77. We received an emergency light from Richard Nazzi from Tucson. Susan will send a donation and thank you letter. Coop Agreement with Alpine and Eagar F.D. They have been completed. Building Committee: The committee will get together on a conference call next week to discuss the grant which is due July 10th. Some of the lenders have a penalty for early pay off of a loan because they take the depreciation of the building, so they lose money if the loan is paid off early.
New Business Building: None Training: The AFDA training is July 10-12 in Tucson. There is a lot of good networking at the meeting. Bill will attend. Paul, Nathan and Susan will probably not be able to make it. Newsletter-Publicity Bill has developed the newsletter, the Board will review and Bill will send it out. Paul will look into putting minutes or the newsletter on the Community Association website. List of Tasks: Susan suggested that a list of tasks be developed at the end of the minutes so assignment of tasks can be made and everyone knows what they need to get done. TASK LIST: Bill and Tim Zalesky will set up a date next week and contact the Building Committee for participation. Susan will contact Verizon Paul will investigate the Community Association website for minute posting. All Board Members will review the newsletter and get back with Bill who will get it published and in the mail boxes. Bill will contact lenders The 2010 Budget will be adopted next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00. The next meeting will be on July 18, 2009, at 0900 in the Community Center. Susan N. Lee Clerk Board Member |
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