JOHNSON COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT #1 – Johnson County, Kansas

Board of Directors Meeting

Date:   July 18, 2011       Time: 6:45 p.m.

Fire Station #1, 490 New Century Pkwy, New Century, KS

BOARD MEMBERS           STAFF

Keith Johnson                         Max Sielert                  Justin Ducey

Kent Harlow                           Rob Kirk                     Tyson Graham

Mark Burdolski                       Trig Morley                 Kyle Brower

CALL TO ORDER

Mark Burdolski called the meeting to order.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Kent Harlow moved to approve the agenda as submitted.  Keith Johnson seconded and the motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Kent Harlow asked that three spelling errors be corrected:  on page 2, paragraph 2 and 4; page 3, paragraph 7.  Keith Johnson moved to approve the minutes from the June 2011 Board meeting minutes as corrected.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.

FINANCIAL REPORT

Chief Sielert presented information relative to our next large tax distribution.  Revenue wise we are still looking good.  We have two small tax distributions that will come this fall that should put us right on budget.  In the Operating budget we are 5% over, largely due to the Air packs purchased in May.  Looking at wages we are under budget, which means we still have 51% of our balance left in our budget for the rest of the year.  Many expenses that put us over in the Operating budget were start up costs.  Due to the loan we received we will need to come in under budget and it looks like we can do that with enough left over in the bank at the end of the year to pay off that loan.  The grant funds are not included in our budget.  We do not have any foreseen large expenses for the rest of the year.

Kent Harlow questioned the $1400 shown in 8002.  Chief Sielert explained this was for the annual service on two of the breathing air compressors, plus the certification for both units.

Keith Johnson asked about the costs for tow service.  Chief Kirk explained we had two trucks broke down while out on calls, plus another engine went off road when making a call. This was unusual to have these happen in one month.

Kent Harlow asked about the cost in legal fees this month and if it was due to the Olathe lawsuit.  Chief Sielert explained this was due to additional costs last month relative to Olathe, plus the costs related to Work Comp and other personnel issues.

Chief Sielert explained that Fuel is over our budget currently, but since we are now saving .06 cents a gallon it should improve each month.

Keith Johnson moved to approve the June 2011 Financial report as submitted.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

Trig Morley presented the article about June Jeffers in a current issue of an amateur radio magazine.  It is about SATERN being in Joplin to support for The Salvation Army.  The article even mentioned that Chief Sielert allowed June to take unpaid time off work to provide the support.  He also advised the board that Chief Sielert had allowed him this past month to deploy to Denver as a volunteer wild land firefighter with just 3 hours notice.  He thanked Chief Sielert for his support in allowing our staff to take vacation with short notice in order to participate in activities for public service.

OLD BUSINESS

a. Chiefs Reports

Fire Chief Max Sielert presented: He indicated that legal matters and the budget was his focus this past month.  The budget has been approved and now will be turned over to the County tomorrow.

We had auditors here this past month to do the 2010 Audit and they were able to accomplished most of the audit, but plan to return in August to finish.  It takes more time for this audit due to the bond issue, however it is going well.

Kent Harlow asked about the status on budgets for other districts.  Chief Sielert indicated that he believed the Northwest Consolidated and Northeast Consolidated both had a drop in assessed value like us while District #2’s assessed value was flat.  We had no change in our budget numbers.

Keith Johnson asked if he was able to confirm the actual numbers for the Kimberly Clark tax distribution.  Chief Sielert says he still had not received word from the County, however, the County was going through a self audit in order to discover if there were any other errors, other than the Kimberly Clark, for the past several years.

Kent Harlow asked about the City of Gardner and the Wal-Mart abatement discussion, and if there was a way to be included in those negotiations.  Chief Sielert indicated that like several other circumstances in the past, like the intermodal, we would not be allowed to offer our opinion or have input on the decision.

Deputy Chief Rob Kirk presented: He advised the board we had received a Wild Land Grant for gear in the amount of $3,000 from the State of Kansas.  This carries a 50% match in funds requirement, which means we have to spend $3,000 of our money to get the full allotment.  This is the fifth year in a row that we have received this grant.  Kent Harlow asked where we were with gear once we spend this grant—would we be in good shape for a while or still need more gear.  Chief Morley explained that we are replacing and updating all staff and volunteer equipment on an ongoing basis and would be adding more volunteers through the rest of this year.

The Bronto-SkyLift is currently out of service due to finding a sheared off bolt on the floor.  We contacted Conrad Fire and they came to look at the unit and the bolt.  They feel it is off the main boom and the experts are trying to determine exactly where on the boom this came from.  They are thinking it came from a tray holding the electrical wires, and it is one of the bolts holding that tray.  They suggested taking the hydraulics out of the beam in order to repair this, however this would be very expensive.  A Conrad consultant from New Zealand is coming into town next week and he will have a look to assess the situation.  The bolt was found when doing the annual testing.  It will remain out of service until we get a better assessment of the condition.

Kent Harlow asked about the possibility of not fixing the unit.  Chief Kirk explained that using a scope to look at the tray without tearing the tray apart is what we are hoping to do in order to save money or un-needed repair work.  If it is going to cost a lot of money the board will be advised.  This was the first ladder testing for this unit.

We will be at the Fair, however, the stand that we have always used will be removed.  They want to put a new 12ft x 12ft building there for us, which CMI is willing to donate 90% of the material.  They are going to run electricity to the new building and Chief Sielert has a small air conditioner he is donating.  Since the building will be built on skids and will be removable, it will work out to our advantage.

We also got a large box truck that was donated by Bushnell in Overland Park for extrication training.  This is the first time we have had any vehicle of that size to train our staff and this provides us with a great opportunity.

Gardner has a Triathlon coming this weekend which will be supported by our staff.  We will have equipment at Celebration Park.  Last year, by the end of that event we had treated a number of participants and expect the same again this year, especially with the heat.  We will have an engine and two brush trucks along with other service vehicles available.  We will use 95% of our volunteers to staff this event in order to provide the service needed.  Kent Harlow asked if the Fire District was providing a vehicle for the Fair.  Chief Kirk advised they are trying something different this year, “Touch a truck” with multiple types of various engines in the arena.  We will have our engine there for that event along with the other usual fair events.  We did send an invitation to Fire District #2 and #3 to assist us with the Demolition Derby on Saturday night.  Kent Harlow asked if Johnson County Sheriff was going to join our display.  Chief Kirk advised we will be using their command center at the fair and we will be staffing our display from noon until evening every day.

We are planning a meeting with Edgerton administration to review how we can help them with the intermodal.  Chief Kirk produced the intermodal map for the board to review and explained some of the work going on at that location.

.

Keith Johnson asked about the ISO project.  Chief Sielert advised he will begin this project in August.

b. Staff Reports

none

NEW BUSINESS

none

FUTURE MEETINGS

The next Board meeting will be held on the 3rd Tuesday due to the Fair in the second week of August.  The meeting is scheduled for August 16^th and will begin at 7:00 p.m.

ADJOURNMENT

At 7:45 p.m. Keith Johnson moved to adjourn the meeting and continue with executive session.  Kent Harlow seconded and the motion carried.  There was a 15 minute Executive Session convened to discuss Personnel Issues.