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

OFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES SOUTH AREA FIRE & EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISTRICT Board of Directors Meeting Wednesday, April 10, 2024 @ 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 were all present. Also present: Village of Rib Mountain – Administrator Rhoden; Village of Weston – Director of Finance Trautman; Attorney Dietrich; SAFER – Fire Chief Finke, Deputy Fire Chief Lang, Battalion Chief Meyers, Captain Lohman (via Zoom), Captain Novak (via Zoom) 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 March 12, 2024, and approval of expenditures and receipts from March 2024. Motioned by Opall to approve prior meeting minutes from March 12, 2024, and expenditures and receipts from March 2024. Second by Langenhahn. Motion carried 5:0. D. Business Items 17:32 Motion by Cronin to adjourn into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(g) for the purpose of conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to potential litigation, including discussion regarding union election petition. Second by Schaefer. Roll-call vote: NAME: Aye Nay Cronin X Langenhahn X Maloney X Opall X Schaefer X Motion carried 5:0. 17:58 Motion by Schaefer to reconvene to open session. Second by Cronin. Motion carried 5:0. Presentation of 2023 Annual Report. - Presentation by Deputy Chief Lang.  Discussion and possible action on Increased Rates for Fire Contracts. - Chief Finke said both Villages have had increases in their levy over the years and I came up with 9%. My reason for 9% is that’s what the increase to the levy was for the Villages last year. Action: Motioned by Cronin to approve Increased Rates for Fire Contracts as presented. Second by Schaefer. Motion carried 5:0. Attorney Referral. - None End of Month Budget review. - Chief Finke said the up-to-date budget is in your packet if anybody has any questions. - Schaefer said when you take $231,992.25 on ambulance fees. - Chief Finke said we are still unfortunately well behind on EMS revenue. We were hopeful the deposit that came in last week would’ve been more, but it was not. We had issues with the new reporting software getting it to the billing company, we have that issue fixed which Deputy Chief Lang did a ton of work to get all those reports fixed and submitted for billing. - Maloney said so we’re just talking about a lag, not like we’re down in service. E. Staff Reports Report from Fire Chief - Fire Chief Finke said I’m going to hand out a letter, a little background, we send out this letter to all local businesses every year and it goes out on our behalf through the National Fire Safety Council and then money that is collected goes towards fire prevention material. The letter that you are reading is a letter I got back on Monday and I did reach out to the new Administrator in Marathon City and we had a decent discussion, he knew nothing about this, he didn’t support it and there is nothing that anybody has to do as far as I’m concerned, I wanted the Board to be aware. The new Administrator also said on the phone as far as I’m concerned you don’t owe us anything, I’m not aware of any outstanding bills. - The house burn on Menton Lane will not be done. The owner will be tearing it down. - We did make an offer to the new part-time Inspector position today. We had two candidates, one internal and one external. - We had a 2% dues audit; it went overall very well. 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: Nothing on personnel. - EMS & Fire Incidents: EMS and fire responses are there. - Training: Training hours are in line with what we’re usually at and our EMS training is really good now that Director of Medical Services Gordon is doing training. - Apparatus: The new Brush truck is here, it’s actually a 2024 Ford F-350 and that will replace Brush 11 that’s been in service for fifteen years. - Fire Prevention/Public Education: Activities are listed. CISM training class that Administrative Assistant Latimer was in. With the CISM training, we’ve had two events in the last month where our staff has gone through stress debriefing. Our team with Administrative Assistant Latimer, Pastor Swanson and another four on staff that are trained and doing a fantastic job. - A couple of CPR classes for a couple of election officials for Rib Mountain. - Grants/Projects: FFP grant has been finalized, we purchased all the equipment and we got reimbursement. The WPS grant should be opening soon for $2,000.00 and our plan for that is to put in for carbon monoxide detectors, so we can give them out to the public. 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 for Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at SAFER Station 1.  - Cronin has nothing. - Langenhahn has nothing. - 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 18:49