Gold Hill Fire Protection District, Board of Directors Meeting 8-21-14

Minutes by Gretchen Diefenderfer, acting secretary in the absence of Dave Sturtz.

Next Meeting will be Thursday, September 18, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center.

The meeting was called to order by Chair Rich Lopez.  Also attending were Bobby Vrba, Paul Garabedian, Chief Chris Finn, and citizen Gretchen Diefenderfer, who agreed to take the minutes.  Rick Geesaman and Dave Sturtz  were out.

Chief’s Report  – Chris reports that he does not have the proposed budget for next year as he is waiting on information from the Assessor on our assessed valuation and tax revenue.  He’ll email it to the board when he gets the numbers.  There are 2 limits to the amount our income can go up (regardless of whether out assessed valuation goes up): the Tabor limit and the State 5% limit, which means that our income can’t rise much once it has gone down, as it did after the fire.  We have 2 mill levies – our regular mill levy and a special assessment mill levy.  Both are in the 4% range.

The big items for the budget are the dry hydrants in Lefthand and a new Fire Truck.  We have a database of all the dry hydrant locations in our district with the fitting sizes on the sun visors of the trucks.

            Calls – Chris reports no calls in the last month.

Training Reports – There are 2 regular trainings every month – the second Saturday and 4^th Thursday. The last training they played with the trucks

Maintenance – The brush truck is back on line, has water, etc.   He will be ordering medical equipment for it.  Also, Old Grey, our utility truck for spotting, is getting a new paint job and will be bright yellow. When we respond to a call in Lefthand, etc., the big truck with the Jaws of Life goes first.  The brush truck is smaller and can get into places with more difficult access.  It carries 200 gal. will have medical equipment, drafts well, and has at least a 300 gpm pump.  The truck we’re looking to replace is Engine 1, with something that size, but with a bigger pump.  If we cannot locate one by next year, we’ll consider having one built for us.  We could alter an older truck and build on a used chassis.  Target date? We should have a plan in place by the end of next year.

Recruiting Poster – Chris would like to revisit this after the budget – maybe put one together at a board meeting.  We are always looking for new volunteers in many different capacities from sandwich making to trained firefighters to respond to community emergencies.  If you are interested, contact Chris at cfinn@nullmho.net

Dry Hydrants – Rich reports that he put out the word in Lefthand for spots to install them and got some good responses right away.  Lefthand Dept. put one in across from Station 1 at Glendale Gulch.  He will send an email to Chris and Ted Planck from the County Road Department with the names and addresses so that we can work their plans with ours, as they finalize their plans for the creek.  Chris added that we want to do these well – Rick Geesaman recommended that we bury a 50 gal. tank in the ground below the water table, perforated so that it will fill with water.  Then we have a readymade spot to draft from.  Boulder County standard is a 6-inch fitting.

Gretchen reported that there will be 1,650 gal. cisterns available from Jamestown that can be repurposed now that their town water system is repaired.  The County requires 1,800 gal. cisterns for fire protection.