S.A.F.E.R. Board of Directors

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, May 9, 2023 @ 17:30 A. Call to Order The meeting of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District Board of Directors was called to order at 17:30 by SAFER Chairman Mark Maloney. Members Present Board of Directors – Cronin, Langenhahn, Maloney, Opall and Schaefer (via Zoom) were all present. Also present: Town of Rib Mountain – Finance Director Dunbar (via Zoom); SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Deputy Fire Chief Lang and Administrative Assistant Latimer. B. Correspondence/Comments from the public on issues related to the SAFER District None C. Consent Items Board of Directors approval of prior meeting minutes from April 11, 2023, and approval of expenditures and receipts from April 2023. Motioned by Schaefer to approve prior meeting minutes from April 11, 2023, and expenditures and receipts from April 2023. Second by Opall. Motion carried 5:0. D. Business Items Discussion and possible action on Contracted Fire Fees for 2024. - Chief Finke said we talked about this at the last meeting and I did go back and run the numbers and keeping our rate the same as it is and using the new assessed values, this is what their fees would be the for 2024. My recommendation seeing that, would be to leave our rate the way it is and we will see an increase because of their assessed value increase. The Town of Marathon took a fairly big increase. We would see a total a little over $11,000.00 more from the three contracted areas. - Maloney asked and that’s just on the assessed and not doing anything else? - Chief Finke said correct. Action: Motion to approve to leave our rate the way it is on Contracted Fire Fees for 2024. Second by Opall. Motion carried 5:0. Discussion and possible action on Purchase of Ambulance. - Chief Finke said Administrative Assistant Latimer had put this on here a little bit ago and at this point it’s not even necessary, but I’ll give you a little background here. We have our transfer ambulance which was supposed to already be re-chassis, chassis was delayed and canceled, it was just delayed and canceled again. The last update I was given, best case scenario the soonest we’re going to see it is the end of 2024. - Schaefer asked what kind of chassis is it? - Chief Finke said it’s a Ford E-350, and Ford is apparently not building those chassis right now. The one option we had and I did track one down, a spec ambulance that’s being built by a company called Medix and we can get the whole ambulance for very close to the cost of what re-chassis ours is going to be, but they are an extremely low quality throw away ambulance. Ford is not building them because they’re a very low profit  vehicle for them. That ambulance has about 185,000 miles on, and our plan is to run it until it hits 200,000 and then long-distance runs, we’re going to send a different ambulance on and we’ll continue to use that one for interfacilities to Tomahawk, Stevens Point and those types of places. - Cronin said what are we looking at? Are we going to replace the whole ambulance? - Chief Finke said we’re going to keep waiting and hopefully we’ll get a chassis. Action: Leave on agenda as a reminder. Election of At-Large Board of Director. - Chief Finke said you have to reelect Langenhahn. Action: Motion by Maloney to elect Langenhahn for the Board of Director At-Large. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 5:0. Attorney Referral. - None End of Month Budget review. - Chief Finke said the up-to-date budget is in there, and everything is looking really good. I did a little forecasting and we’re running under budget on payroll, which Deputy Chief Lang and I have to sit down and do some math and put numbers to it and mostly because we’ve been running short. EMS revenue we just received our deposit last week and we’re running almost $100,000.00 ahead. - Schaefer said if you look, we’re at the end of April with $417,000.00 at four months in, so that’s $105,000.00 a month. - Chief Finke said I asked Director of Finance Trautman about that and she said you have to remember it’s a month behind. - Finance Director Dunbar said it’s always going to be a month behind. - Schaefer said so in January 2024 we’ll receive something and we’ll accrue that back to 2023? - Finance Director Dunbar said correct. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said I purchased a new truck for my take home vehicle. It was a spur of a moment decision that I talked to Maloney about before I did. We received a good deal from a local auto dealership and they gave us a really good price on our trade-in. o Schaefer asked where did the money come from for this? Was this budgeted? o Chief Finke said there was extra money in CIP. o Schaefer said this sounds like a good deal, but this is something we should always budget for and look for. o Maloney said it might be a little bit my fault, because every time I saw him in the old Chief’s vehicle, I made some comments and I shouldn’t have done that and should’ve brought it here. It didn’t look right for us. - Riverside Fire District has been trying to buy a ladder truck since Riverside started and they’ve been denied a couple times and their Board just approved them last week to purchase a $1,700,000.00 aerial. With that being said the Wausau Metro area will now have 5 ladder trucks, four 100 – 110-foot platforms and one 75- foot stick. I think in my opinion and ultimately, it’s the Boards decision, and I did send an email out to get some background from Pierce, do we want to reconsider our purchase and need of a ladder truck? Since we did our prep for purchasing one and our need to replace one that was in the CIP, there’s been two more trucks added to the metro area. o Maloney said I don’t know where this is going, but I can’t believe you’re bringing this up. This is unbelievable, this is so far more than I expected out of both of you and the group. So, what you’re telling me then, that you would then start having negations with Chief Bowen? o Chief Finke said I did send an email to Chief Bowen asking is this going to be available for use if we need it? He said of course.  o Cronin said has a study been done on how many trucks we need in this area? Let’s throw a hypothetical situation out there, Wausau Supply in Weston starts on fire, five trucks is not going to cover that. o Chief Finke said no, but when you get those types of incidents, we will be deep into MABAS and we’ll have (Stevens) Point, Merrill and Marshfield and I do look at that. I had two thoughts, one is we cancel the truck and two if they come back with no, there’s going to be a 10% penalty. Then maybe we work with them and put in a change request and buy a less expensive truck. I did some research over the weekend and Wausau Metro area would have the same number of ladder trucks as the city of Madison who has 5 trucks. Milwaukee has 7. o Schaefer said I’m a little nervous with the staffing issue. o Cronin said and I am too. We went from two truck to one, but we’re also the second biggest department and we won’t have one. I’m fine going down to one, but I don’t know if I’m fine going down to zero. o Chief Finke said I can see what Kevin Pomasl comes back with and bring it to the next meeting. - One of our retired members who was a member of Weston Fire Department for several years and then was with SAFER up until three years ago when he retired, had unexpectedly passed away over the weekend. At this point and talking to his wife, they are not going to do a funeral and will have a celebration of life in the fall. The information for deceased retired firefighters goes to the State Fire Chiefs (Association) which Deputy Chief Lang and Administrative Assistant Latimer are working on getting the information sent in. o Cronin said I did bring a card if the Board wants to sign. o Maloney said can we sign your name Schaefer? o Schaefer said yes, please. - I talked to Mr. Phelps after our last meeting and he is interested in continuing on the Fire Commission. He will be back in the area either in June or July. That election will be on the next Board agenda. Report from Deputy Fire Chief - Deputy Fire Chief Lang said the report is in your packet and I’ll give you the highlights. - Personnel report: Captain Lohman started a couple weeks ago. EMS Division Chief Bechel put in her notice and her last day (as EMS Division Chief) will be May 19th and has accepted a position as the Assistant Emergency Manager for Marathon County. She will stay part time on IFT Staff. We had a meeting with the Battalion Chiefs and we posted a temporary position for the next 60 – 90 days and figure out exactly if we’re going to fill it with another EMS Division Chief or we have other needs with inspection needs, training needs and maybe that turns into a different position. - EMS & Fire Incidents: EMS responses are there and we’re up from last year on responses. Fire responses are there and structure fires to note; Whitespire Rd in the Village of Rothschild which was a total loss of the apartment building, then Whisper Rd in the Town of Mosinee the homeowner’s daughter closed the bedroom door which confined the fire to the bedroom, next we had a fire alarm at MMC Weston and turned out to be an X-ray machine in a storage room that was on fire and the sprinkler system did a good job of keeping it down. - Training: 685 hours and a breakdown listed. - Apparatus: Nothing to report. - Fire Prevention/Public Education: CPR Classes. - Grants/Projects: That is listed. F. Remarks from the Board of Directors to set the next meeting date, as well as discuss items for the next meeting agenda. - Next meeting scheduled Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 17:30 at SAFER Station 2. - Cronin asked how would the ladder truck affect our ISO rating? o Chief Finke said it would be minimal, maybe hit us with a point. - Langenhahn had a discussion on Town of Bergen Board members. - Opall has nothing. - Schaefer has nothing.  - Maloney has nothing. G. Adjourn Motion by Opall to adjourn. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. Maloney adjourned at 18:17