Posted on: June 19th, 2013

Gold Hill Fire Protection District Board Meeting, May 16, 2013

Notes by Gretchen Diefenderfer

Next Board Meeting is Thursday, June 20, 2013, 7:00 at the Community Center

Present were President Donal Maloney, Secretary Dave Sturtz, board members Rick Geesaman, Rich Lopez, and Bobby Vrba, and community member Gretchen Diefenderfer.

Donal opened the meeting with a tribute to Dave Nyquist, who died on May 15^th.  He was a long-term Chief in Lefthand and continued to be very active on the Boulder County Incident Management Team, both locally and regionally.  He was very competent, well regarded, and always more than willing to teach.  Donal spoke of his appreciation for his personal experiences with Dave as well as Chris Finn’s, who told Donal that our best tribute would be to pass on our own knowledge and experience.

Minutes of the last meeting were not distributed.  Dave will email them and Rich made a motion that they be approved by email. The motion was approved.

CITIZEN TIME

Gretchen reported that the bigger metal address signs down Sunshine cost around $675 for 100, plus the posts at around 2.50 apiece.  One thought is to get the smaller green plastic ones from the County for all who do not have them within the town limits.  They are free and, being smaller, would minimize sign pollution in our close quarters. There are many missing signs and no consistent location for them.  Then, we could purchase the larger metal ones for the rest of our district.  The discussion centered on figuring out how many we would need and Dave Sturtz volunteered to help Gretchen.  They will look to get up-to-date maps and come up with a good estimate of the numbers needed and the cost.  Gretchen’s idea is that the FD and the Town Meeting could share the cost.  Good signage would be a big help in any emergency and a benefit for all.

OLD BUSINESS

Rich has written a letter to 2 property owners in the Rowena area where we are considering installing a dry hydrant.  They will be here this summer and he will continue to communicate with them about this.

Re: the Cistern in the subdivision: It went in originally with the permission of the property owners, the Giffin’s, sometime in the 90’s. We maintain it and fill it, typically with water from Lefthand.  The property now belongs to Sue Kidder and Paul Roberts who are moving to the Philippines this summer.  They have a draft agreement for a legal easement from the FD’s lawyer, Dick Lyons, but no agreement has been finalized.  Rich will pursue this.

NEW BUSINESS

Donal reported that they have $2000 budgeted for station repairs.  He got a list of things that need to be done – conduit, etc. – from the electrician who did the work when they put in the exhaust system.  Donal will bring in the list to the board, and have the electrician submit a bid.

Donal also reported on our readiness as a department for the upcoming fire season.  Steffi Wilson and Marielle Sidell have completed the Wildland Fire Fighter course and others did a refresher.  They will be doing more training and making sure the trucks are ready.  Dave Sturtz offered to help with the trucks.  Donal says they have a pretty good number of certified Wildland Firefighters – 12.  They are always recruiting firefighters as well as medical responders.  And they’re coming into good weather and will be doing more training with water.

Rich had questions about the fire danger rating signs – they are provided by the USFS and changed daily by the fire departments.

Rick wondered if the County would be providing the lightening locating software this year – Chris will probably know soon.  It was awesome, but quite expensive.i

Dave Sturtz reported that Amy is running the Emergency Preparedness group for Gold Hill and Dave, as a ham radio operator, attended the last meeting and offered to be the FD liaison to the group.   All approved.

Donal reported that the Chief has been training everyone on the new SCBAs and they are now on the trucks and operational.  They have lots of bells & whistles compared to the old ones, they weigh less, and are more comfortable.

Gretchen mentioned that she had not requested reimbursement for her EMT recertification as a donation to the FD, and the board thanked her.