HARMONY FIRE DISTRICT
P.O. Box 360 – 194 Putnam Pike
The regularly scheduled
monthly meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board was held at the
Harmony Fire Station on Wednesday, April
28, 2010.
Present: Chief
Stuart Pearson; Moderator - Raymond Fogarty, Jr.;
Treasurer
- Sandra Owens; Tax Collector - Kimberly Barber;
Attorney
- Fred Mason, Jr.;
Board
Members - Louise Michaels, James Richards & Milton Huston
Absent: Clerk
- Ann Dahlquist;
Board Member - George Kain
Association
Representative – George Nichols
I. –
Meeting Called to Order: 7:20
pm by Moderator Fogarty.
II. -
Approval of the minutes from the March 18th meeting.
Moderator Fogarty asked the
board if there were any discrepancies to note on the minutes from the March 18th
meeting. If not, he would like to call
for a motion to accept them.
Louise made a motion to
accept the minutes. Milton seconded the
motion. The motion carried.
III. -
Treasurer’s Report:
Sandy did not have a report
available to present this month.
IV. - Tax
Collector’s Report:
Taxes receivable balance is $97,791.47
as of today’s date. Taxes collected in
the month of
April were $12,686.02. Third party billing monies collected in the
month of April totaled $8,202.78. The
tax sale process will start in May for the Sale to be held in August.
Christine Martin, a
Ponaganset High School Junior, came in to the station over school vacation last
week to do community service. It is a
graduation requirement to perform 20 hours of community service. Christine worked on labeling photos hanging
in the halls, scanning documents for our digital archives and preparing archive
albums. It was a fun experience and she
was a pleasure to have in the office.
Ray asked about another community service project for another Harmony
student. The Chief will check into
it. Jim also suggested that the student
contact the library for hours.
Kim has been in contact with
Geoff Malo and our financial audit for fiscal year end June 30, 2009 will be
ready by the end of May.
A new three (3) year contract, commencing July 1, 2010, has been signed
with our 3rd party billing provider, Healthcare Management and
Billing Services. They have reduced
their rate from 6% to 5% of revenue collected.
Jim made a motion to accept
the tax collector’s report. Louise
seconded it. The motion carried.
V. -
Chief’s Report:
The Chief had thank you cards
to pass around for the board to view.
One from Deputy Chief Dennis Huestis, Chepachet Fire Department, a
second from crew member Eric Palmieri, and another from residents Marie and
Bill Poliquin whom appreciated the service of our rescue. Dennis and Eric are both feeling much
better now.
A thank you letter was
received from the Woonasquatucket League in appreciation for the use of our
building for their recent “Beyond the Basics” class.
A copy of Harrisville Fire
Departments 100th Anniversary booklet is available to view. The page with our ad is marked.
The Chief had a newsletter
from the Symposium in the Sun that he had attended in Clearwater, Florida last
fall. It gives a little insight into
the event and the training and topics it covered for volunteer and combination
fire departments.
A training was held here by
the RI Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA) for the use of the 800 MHz radios
that were distributed statewide through grant funding. These radios bring us into compliance with
federal law.
The Chief led a group of Cub
Scouts through the station one evening for a tour. It was a fun experience, one he thinks the kids really enjoyed.
On March 24th the
Chief attended an AFG grant workshop.
Another application period is opening and we are hoping to be successful
this time. At the meeting they stated
that we would hear within the next week or two about any outstanding grants
that we have filed. Nothing yet though,
so it is very frustrating.
The Association held a Ham
& Bean Dinner here at the station.
It was their first event in the new kitchen and it went quite well.
The Chief attended the
quarterly meeting of Glocester Building Inspectors office and the Glocester
Fire Inspectors. The Plumbing and
Electrical Inspectors were also in attendance.
These meetings are always informative and a great way to keep the lines
of communication open and all of the inspectors in town working together.
On March 29th the
President declared a National State of Emergency in RI due to flooding. We worked with RIEMA and FEMA throughout the
emergency and kept them abreast of the situation here in Harmony. A meeting was attended with these agencies
and we were registered to submit a claim for disaster relief funds. Our “Kick-Off” meeting will be tomorrow
morning and the other Glocester fire departments will be in attendance as
well. Ray expressed his appreciation to
the department and crew for their assistance at his son’s house during the
flooding.
On April 20th Lieutenant Kevin Farley received the
Chepachet Grange’s Firefighter of the Year award.
The Chief also attended the
swearing in ceremony for the new Glocester Police Chief, Joseph Delprete.
Last night the Chief attended
a northern Fire Chief’s meeting at the Foster Country Club. Once again there was a very good attendance
from Glocester, Foster, Scituate and Burrillville. A group from Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications made a
presentation about an emergency dispatch center. Quite a bit of conversation and goods ideas came from it. The next step would be to speak with the
Police Chiefs of each town, to go over the proposal. This is a proactive idea, thinking about the future, with no
plans being concrete.
Chief Pearson and Private
Michael Grenga attended Career Day at the Ponaganset High School today. The power point presentation went well and
was an interesting experience.
Also today the Deputy Chief
attended a foam demonstration at Smithfield Station #3.
There has been a date change
for the Surprise Birthday Party for Milton Aldrich. It will now be Sunday, June 27th.
Reminder: The Glocester Fire
Department’s Banquet is this Saturday, May 1st. Cocktails at 6:00 pm and dinner at 7:00
pm. There are raffle tickets available
for purchase, $1 each or a book of 6 for $5.
If the tickets are bought prior to the banquet our department gets to
keep 100% of the proceeds, if bought the night of the banquet the proceeds have
to be split with the other two departments.
Louise made a motion to
accept the chief’s report. Milton
seconded it. The motion carried.
VI. – Harmony Fire Department & Improvement
Association Report:
No representative available
to present report.
VII. -
Committee Reports:
a.
Rescue Committee – Jim,
Chair
Jim
had pictures of the new truck for everyone to view. Delivery of truck will be any day now. It was here this past Tuesday for the committee to inspect. Now it is back at the local facility, having
the lock box installed and a few other small things. Once it gets here we will receive the Certificate of Origin which
will enable us to register it. Then it
will have to be inspected by the RI Department of Health, so they can issue us
a license. Then we can put it on the
road. Sandy had the checks ready to
remit to Specialty Vehicles for payment.
The
old truck will be relettered and stored at West Glocester Fire Department. Jim has drafted an agreement for the combined
ownership of it between us and the Chepachet Fire District. An invoice will accompany the agreement
requesting their payment of $6,500.
This payment will be deposited into our miscellaneous income account for
now, possibly to be transferred to our truck fund account in the future. Ray requested that a photo of the new rescue
be e-mailed to him for use in a project that he is working on at Bryant. It is a state-wide document showing that RI
ranks number 2 in the nation for emergency medical service. He will have the photo inserted near that
ranking. It will be great recognition.
b.
Call Pay Review – George,
Chair
George
absent – no update available.
c.
Policies &
Procedures Manual – Milton, Chair
Milton
had some questions for the board after reviewing the sample document provided
by the Glocester Town Hall. Is our
document meant to be similar to this?
The board agreed that it should be. It should cover pay rates,
attendance, vacation, leave, conduct, use of e-mail, etc. It is a document that is meant to cover the
administration side of the district.
The board would like to contact the same person who helped us work on
the job description before Kim came on board.
d.
Charter & By-Laws
Review – George, Chair
Although
George was absent, Kim stated that the proposed Charter & By-Laws changes
had been forwarded to Attorney Mason for review. Attorney Mason stated that the only item he found an issue with,
was the use of the term “quasi-municipal corporation.” He feels that it does not apply to the
Harmony Fire District and should therefore be struck. Other than that there were only minor verbiage adjustments
throughout the documents. Ray was
concerned about getting the changes for the Charter to the Legislature before
they adjourned around July 4th.
Instead letters will need to be sent to our Legislators in September for
submission in November. The changes to
the By-Laws were presented at this meeting to be voted on at the next meeting
of the board.
Milton
asked about posting our Charter and By-Laws on our website. Kim said that is something that she and the
Chief had discussed, when talking about changes for the website. They will be added sometime in the future.
VIII. -
Old Business: Addressed throughout
reports.
IX. -
New Business:
Budget Fiscal Year 2010-11.
Sandy requested that Kim send
any information she has to her and she will prepare a budget worksheet to send
out to the board. Then the worksheet
can be distributed via e-mail to the board members for their review prior to
our next meeting.
Next month an executive
session will need to be called for matters of personnel to determine pay rates
for budgeting purposes.
Some discussion followed
about the water in the building. The
Chief is calling someone in to check out the system. For the time being the board approved bringing in a water
delivery company to rent a dispenser and have water jugs delivered.
The Chief brought up the
subject of wind turbines, which has been covered locally in newspapers due to
several projects in RI, including one in Smithfield. Some discussion followed about possible options and uses for this
type of project for the fire district.
X. -
Public Input: No audience.
XI. –
Executive Session: None called.
XII.
– Adjournment:
Jim made a motion to adjourn
the meeting. Louise seconded it. The motion carried.
The April meeting of the
Harmony Fire District Executive Board was adjourned at 8:20 pm.
The next meeting of the Harmony Fire District
Executive Board
is scheduled for Thursday, 7:00 pm, May 20, 2010 at the Harmony Fire Station.
Respectfully
Submitted,
Kimberly S. Barber
Tax Collector/Secretary