Windham – The WVFD Joint Fire District met for their regularly scheduled meeting recently with all board members in attendance. Jayme Neikirk opened the meeting with nominations for the chairman. Brian Miller nominated Ron Kilgore as chairman and Cheryl Taylor second the motion, the motion carried. Kilgore took over the meeting from there. The board chose Miller as the vice-chairman.
Next, the board took care of the usual “housekeeping” by approving the minutes, expenditures and the bank reconciliation for December 2018. They also renewed their annual insurance of $12,107.
Chief Rich Gano reported that they had 585 calls year to date. This was one call less than 2017 (586). Other interesting numbers for the year were, 461 EMS calls compared to 472 EMS calls in 2017. The break down of calls was, to township 218 and the village 341, compared to 2017, which were 166 and 288 respectively. The calls to Camp Garfield and the turnpike were the same for both years at 9 and 6 respectively. Average response time for the month of December was 3 minutes and 3 seconds.
The chief reminded everyone that the new year was the start of the false alarm policy. The policy will allow three false alarm drops per year, per facility. After three, they will be billed $200 for each false alarm drop. The reason for adding the fee is each drop can take an hour or longer to clear the facility to ensure that it was a false alarm drop. This takes people and a fire truck out of commission while they inspect the facility.
The board will have its attorney send out notices to those folks that failed to meet their tuition agreement obligations to the district. When the district agrees to pay for EMS schooling or paramedic schooling, the recipient agrees to give the district two years of service. If they fail to meet that obligation, they are to repay the tuition. However, the board will prorate the amount owed after a year of service. If they fail the course or don’t complete it, they are obligated to repay the district, the entire amount. There are several folks that are delinquent and owe the district a significant amount.
Gano also reported that the grass fighter (2817) needed new tires, the board approved the measure. The board agreed to send three folks to basic EMT training in February. Gano said, he has informed the guys of the safety measures and disciplines for not following them. The chief is pricing out fire retardant reflective vest and plans to use grant money for the purchase. He also presented a former firefighter EMT Charles Hoskin to the board for rehiring. After some discussion, the board agreed to rehire Hoskin. Hoskin will be on a 90 day probationary period.
Lastly, the men and women of the fire department thanked the board for the holiday gift cards.
The fire board meets on the second Thursday of each month at 7PM at the fire station.
