HARMONY FIRE DISTRICT

P.O. Box 360 – 194 Putnam Pike

Harmony, R.I.  02829

 

 

The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board was held at the Harmony Fire Station on Thursday, March 18, 2010.

 

Present:            Chief Stuart Pearson; Moderator - Raymond Fogarty, Jr.;

            Treasurer - Sandra Owens; Tax Collector - Kimberly Barber; 

            Clerk - Ann Dahlquist; Attorney - Fred Mason, Jr.

            Board Members - Louise Michaels, James Richards, Milton Huston & George Kain

                        Association Representative – George Nichols

 

Absent:            

                                   

 

I. – Meeting Called to Order:  7:03 pm by Moderator Fogarty. 

 

II. - Approval of the minutes from the February 18th meeting. 

Moderator Fogarty asked the board if there were any discrepancies to note on the minutes from the February 18th meeting.  If not, he would like to call for a motion to accept them. 

 

George made a motion to accept the minutes.  Jim seconded the motion.  The motion carried.

 

III. - Treasurer’s Report:

Sandy presented her report for the month of February.  Beginning balance February 1st $456,011.37 and the ending balance February 28th $452,332.19.  In February there was a quarterly car tax payment received.  Other than that there were no expenses out of the ordinary to report.

 

Jim made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  Louise seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

IV. - Tax Collector’s Report:

Since Kim had missed last meeting, she was presenting information to cover 2 months.

 

Taxes receivable balance is $110,533.35 as of today’s date.  Taxes collected in the month of

February were $6,478.12.  Third party billing monies collected in the month of February, as shown in Sandy’s  monthly report, totaled $4,928.69. 

 

Kim thought she would mention that the miscellaneous income account now has a balance of $7,150.00   This is due to revenue collected for the EMT-B class, the sale of the 1959 Rescue, the Kilmartin grant and 2 payments from the Harmony Hill School for the Fire Starter Program.  These monies will be used to make pre-designated purchases for the department, so the balance will be depleted.

 

In February a joint meeting of the RI Tax Collector’s Association (RITCA) and the RI Association of Assessing Officers (RIAAO) was attended.  People from the RI DMV were there to discuss their new computer system and software upgrades and how they were going to interact with the tax collectors from the different towns.  Fire District Tax Collectors took this opportunity to ask them the questions, “Should the fire districts be given back the authority to tax motor vehicles, will their new system be able to support that   Also, how long would it take to get the fire districts into the system so we could get the information.”  They replied that they would be able to support the fire districts, but they do not know how long it would take.  They are still working with the cities and towns, trying to get them trained and operational, before the RI DMV moves to its new facility in Cranston.

 

There was additional discussion at this meeting about the motor vehicle tax phase out payments.  However since that time the state has released checks and we should get them for the rest of this fiscal year.  After that, it is unknown whether the payments will continue.

 

The hottest legislation issue discussed at this meeting was RI Housing and Tax Sales.  The issue is that RI Housing is trying to change the redemption period for properties that they purchase.  Initially legislation was passed to give RI Housing the right to first refusal for all tax sale properties, because they would give home owners 3 years to redeem and this would help people keep their properties.  Now they want to change the redemption period to 2 years.  The RITCA is challenging the change, because it is not fair to give RI Housing right to first refusal if they are only going to give 2 years instead of the regular 1 year people would get with any other buyer.  This defeats the whole purpose of helping people to stay in their homes.

 

Louise made a motion to accept the tax collector’s report.  George seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

V. - Chief’s Report:

 

A grant was submitted to RI DEM on February 19th and we have received the award letter already.  We will be using these funds to purchase 4 GPS units and hold a class to train GPS Navigators.  Some discussion followed about how GPS’s are used.

 

The ‘Beyond the Basics’ class being held here has been completed.

The EMT-Basic class is progressing well and will not be complete until May.

The Firefighter II class was canceled due to minimal enrollment.  We plan to reschedule this class later this fall.

 

 The Chief has resolved a discrepancy between the RI Department of Health and RI DMV and a law involving a blue light on the back of rescues.  In his discussion with the RI DOH he explained that RI is a NFPA 1500 compliant state and the DMV was trying to enforce a law that was in conflict with this code. 

 

Private Aimee Young is back from medical leave.  She is now currently enrolled in the EMT-B class.  Ray asked how Randy was feeling.  The Chief replied that he was feeling fine, working his regular job as well as responding to calls.  His recovery has gone well.

 

A new ‘Standard Operating Guideline’ (SOG) has been created for the rescue drug exchange procedure.

 

An upgrade has been done to the FirePro software on the radio room computer.  This is the software that we log all of our department information in.  When the new rescue comes in the computers will be moved around and there will be a separate computer in the radio room dedicated solely to FirePro.

 

Private Eric Palmieri was in the hospital for a couple of days.  He had been ill, but has bounced back fast and is already back making calls.  He is also currently enrolled in the EMT-B class.

 

Our cleaning company, Janitech, accidentally broke the mirror in the ladies room.  We are working with them to get it replaced.

 

On March 16th there was a regional fire chief’s meeting held at Chester’s.  Attending were Glocester, Burrillville, Scituate and Foster.  Topics discussed were: the mutual aid system, dispatching, purchasing and planning.  Some discussion followed about working cooperatively with other departments.

 

The Chief and Deputy Chief both attended 2 full day classes on NFPA 1 and 101 code changes.  RI will be adopting the 2009 edition soon.

 

Baseboard apinting has started.  Private Johnathan Detri has been doing the work, along with some help from Private Brenden Nichols.  The Chief said they are doing a nice job.

 

The Chief also mentioned that the ‘Active/Inactive’ list that we have been posting on the bulletin board in the radio room is starting to show some improvement.  It is starting to show a swing with more crew members becoming active.

 

Upcoming Events:

3/27 The Association is putting on a Ham & Bean Dinner from 4:30 – 7:30 pm.  $10 adults/$4 kids

5/5 Chief Hainsworth’s Retirement Party at Wright’s Farm at 5:30 pm.  Tickets $30 in advance, none to be sold at the door. 

5/16 Tri-State Firefighters Meet at the Brooklyn Fairgrounds from 9:00 am - ?

6/11 Surprise 75th Birthday Party & Roast for Milton Aldrich at the Knight’s of Columbus Hall in Pascoag.   

 

George made a motion to accept the chief’s report.  Louise seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

VI. – Harmony Fire Department & Improvement Association Report: 

George gave an update on the condition of his wife, Private Linda Nichols, who is out on medical leave.  He stated that she had a nerve block done on her neck and shoulder, it did not seem to have any effect.  Her next option would be to operate on her neck, but she won’t let them do it, because she is afraid that she will end up worse off than she is already.

 

George stated that this will be his last meeting as President.  The Association will be holding an emergency election, since 3 out of 4 of the officers are not active. 

 

The Association has purchased their own computer and will be getting their own internet service provider (ISP).  They are in the process of comparing providers and the Association will be paying the monthly bill themselves.  Some discussion followed on firewalls and internet security.

 

Milton made a motion to accept the association’s report.  Louise seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

VII. - Committee Reports:

a.       Rescue Committee – Jim, Chair

Jim stated that everything is looking good and going according to schedule.  The rescue will be here next month.  Sandy stated that the money is all set.  Ray asked how much we would have left in the cash flow after the truck is paid for.  Sandy said somewhere around

$300, 000.  She will have a more specific amount in her cash flow model next month.

b.      Call Pay Review – George, Chair

George stated that we will discuss this more next month, after the charter and by-laws review is complete.  He said that he may also need information from the policies and procedures manual to complete the call pay review.                                                                                                 

c.       Policies & Procedures Manual – Milton, Chair

Milton stated that he is waiting for information about a person to contact.  Ray will try to get her name.  Kim stated that she had put a copy of the Glocester Town Hall’s personnel manual in Milton’s folder.  The town clerk’s office had sent it to her in a word format for the committee’s review. 

d.      Charter & By-Laws Review – George, Chair

There are drafts of the proposed changes to both the Charter and By-Law’s in everyone’s folders for their review.  Everything in red is either new or has been changed.  Everything in black is old wording.  There are a couple of captions in green.  George had noted that there was a question from Sandy, are banks able to enforce 2 signatures on checks? Sandy said she would look into it and get back to him.  George said that there weren’t as many changes to the Charter as the By-Law’s, but the goal was to clean everything up, streamline it, and bring us up to speed.  George asked if everyone could review the drafts and get back to him with comments by the next meeting.  Ann commented about the changes to the Clerk’s position.  Ray stated that it was the first time that the drafts had been seen by the board, and they would also have to be reviewed by an attorney for legalities.  Kim stated that comparable fire district documents that were reviewed in this process were from Harrisville, Albion, East Greenwich and Misquamicut.  Ray asked if George thought the Charter changes would be ready to go to the Legislature after the review is complete.  George stated that we will be ready to go, it just depends if we have time to get it drafted and the Legislature has time left for us to submit it.  Some discussion followed about terminology within the document.

 

VIII. - Old Business:  Addressed throughout reports.

 

IX. - New Business:  Addressed throughout reports.

 

X. - Public Input:  No audience.

 

XI. – Executive Session:  None called.

 

XII. – Adjournment: 

George made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Milton seconded it.  The motion carried. 

The March meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board was adjourned at 7:58 pm.

 

 

The next meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board

is scheduled for Thursday, 7:00 pm, April 15, 2010 at the Harmony Fire Department.

 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Kimberly S. Barber

Tax Collector/Secretary