Gold Hill Fire Protection District Board Meeting 6-16-16

Notes by Gretchen Diefenderfer

Next meeting will be Thursday, July 21, 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center

The meeting was called to order by Chair Rich Lopez. Attending were Rich, Paul Garabedian, Bobby Vrba, Chief Chris Finn and community member Gretchen Diefenderfer. Rick Geesaman and Boyd Brown had excused absences.

Approval of the minutes was deferred. Rich was not at the last meeting and there was not a quorum to approve them without Rick and Boyd. Gretchen brought up the fact that the minutes aren’t being posted on the website. Chris reported that Dave Sturtz and Rick need to get together and show Rick how to do it.

Chief’s Report

            Calls – Discussed the accident with fatalities out west of town off the old dump road. We had a CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) two days later, which was a very good thing, as this was a very difficult call for everyone involved. Bobby has installed fence posts around the huge steep sided hole that the victims drove into and it will be filled in in August by the State Forest Service.

            Other News – Allenspark and Lefthand are spearheading an effort to get a share of the funding that Boulder County receives from the USFS for roads and fire protection on forest service lands for the Boulder County Fire Protection Districts. This would help us pay for our firefighting efforts on Federal Lands. All the departments need to be more complete in reporting all the campfires that we attend to capture the data.

Budget – it’s time to start thinking about next years budget.

New Fire Truck – Chris and Bobby have been looking into a new truck from Missouri – looks like it has what we need and would fit. Just a question of how much it would cost.

New Firefighter – Sam has started training and responded on a medical call this summer while he was training with Donal.

Have the Emergency Operations Plan and the Resource Mobilization Plan been completed and turned in to the OEM? Rich will check to make sure.

Responding to Gretchen’s request, Chris said that the 3-part medical reports are no longer being used.   Gretchen still thinks it would be a good thing to have at least a 2-copy form because we are required to keep good records, especially on a big event, and it’s handy to be able to give a copy to AMR.

Next big event is the 4^th of July Pancake Breakfast and Parade! Volunteers are still needed.

Review and discussion of GHFPD goals and vision

Dry Hydrants – Rich and Chris will work with Ted Plank. The consultants on the Lefthand Canyon renovations are quite happy to work with us on locating several dry hydrants as they finalize the repairs in the canyon. Rich has obtained permission from several property owners for locating hydrants on their properties.

Cistern – Rick has been handling this and is not here tonight. Gretchen had a report from him for the GHTM that in the next few months we will be putting our plan together in order to get the necessary permits from the Planning Department. He will have a presentation for the next town meeting. Gretchen also reported to the town meeting that a location higher up in the meadow was being considered, which would provide a water supply to the houses on Hill Street in case of a fire. Steffie Wilson was very interested. Plans are not finalized, but Rich added that this 30,000-gallon cistern would be an advantage to everyone in case of fire. They do plan to confer with all the neighbors, rehab everything, and make things good again afterward.

Strategic Planning: Succession plan – not addressed this meeting.

Retirement plan process – we need to apply. Rich has started working on this.

Chris reported that signs are coming that will indicate that there is no parking on one side of our streets where they are narrow. Emergency access can be compromised when we have big events in town.