Orchard Park Board of Fire Commissioners

ORCHARD PARK BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS MINUTES OF THE JANUARY MEETING

The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Orchard Park Fire District was held on January 14, 2014 at 8:00 PM in the Board Room of the Orchard Park Fire Hall. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Eiskant.

Roll Call:

Chairman: Robert Eiskant Dist. Chief: Joseph Jensen Sr. Commissioner: Jack Putnam Treasurer: Deborah Rogers Commissioner: Kenneth Machemer Attorney: Michael Chelus Commissioner: Robert Benning Secretary: Roberta Buczkowski Commissioner: Frank Wierzbowski EMS: Tony Balester Training Officer: William Hanrahan

Fire Company Officers Present:

Orchard Park 1st Assistant Chief: Rich Mrugalski Windom 1st Assistant Chief: Guy Carey Hillcrest 1st Assistant Chief: Al Marino

Others Present: Howard Hoffman, Windom Dave Stromecki, Brown & Stromecki Insurance Ed Jensen Sr., Orchard Park Andrew Kowalski, Orchard Park Robert Baun, Windom Peter Slotman, Hillcrest Andy Geist, Hillcrest Jon, Torre, Hillcrest Tim Benstead, OPFD EMS G. J. Whittington, Northern Fire William Savage, E-ONE, Inc. Nick Lobur, Windom Shari Hubert, Windom Matt Cavanagh, Orchard Park

Approval of Minutes of the Meeting: Motion made by Commissioner Putnam, seconded by Commissioner Benning that the minutes of the December 2013 and Organizational meeting be approved. All in favor; motion carried.

Bid Opening for new pumper:

Letter from Northern Fire Equipment requesting a 30 day extension. KME $554,126.00 E1 $530,912.00 Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Putnam to turn the bids over to the committee for review. All in favor; motion carried

Communications and Action on Same: 1. Certificate of Worker’s Compensation Insurance for Warning Electrical. Filed. 2. Notice from George Paul for re-election for Director of Association of Fire Districts State of New York. Basket 3. Notices from Erie County Emergency Services re: standard training. Basket 4. Notice from Erie County Fire District Officers re: next meeting January 15th Kenilworth Fire District, Tonawanda NY. Basket 5. Notice from John R. Wicka for position of Director of Region #6 of the Association of Fire District of the State of New York. Basket. 6. Certificate of Insurance for Saia Communications. Filed 7. Certificate of Insurance for Hamburg Overhead Door. Filed. 8. Letter from Orchard Park Fire Company re: use of Central by Orchard Park Rotary Club on May 17, 2014. Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to accept. All in favor; motion carried. 9. Association of Fire Districts; Ballots for election. 10. AFDSNY re: Commissioner and Treasurer training. Basket. 11. Letter from Windom Fire Company re: thank you to the Board for the food for the standby. Filed. 12. Letter from Windom Fire Company re: inactive status for Jerry Knavel. See new memberships and removals.

Treasurer’s Report: There is no treasurer’s report for January.

District Joseph Jensen Sr. 1. Monthly reports read. Attached to file copy 2. Had two (2) accidents with the District Truck. All has been reported to Brown & Stromecki 3. Windom 882 mirror was broken. All fixed. 4. Firefighter Jordan Kellerman assisted with the rescue of four people, one adult and three children from the burning building on Hunters Ridge and should be commended. No other injuries and over 100 firefighters were there. 5. Damage to OP1, OP2 OP6, W1 and H2 in the fire at Hunter’s Ridge. $1000.00 worth of equipment lost; but no loss of life.

District EMS Officer, Tony Balester:

1. There will be a CPR class at Central on January 21st.

District Training Officer, Bill Hanrahan: 1. The drill on January 20th will be Traffic Safety. Commissioner Neaverth will give some information from NYTEC on how to safely and effectively shut down a road. The NYTEC information regarding this should be in all apparatus. 2. Just a reminder that there should be no other company drills on the same night as a district drill. 3. There will be a large scale drill at McGard sometime in October of this year. 4. The video library needs updating. When at FDIC will check new materials. Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Machemer for Training Officer to purchase new training material at FDIC not to exceed $2000.00. All in favor; motion carried. 5. Have already paid for the National Fire Academy in March. Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to reimburse up to $200.00. All in favor; motion carried.

Orchard Park Assistant Chief, Rich Mrugalski: 1. There will be an RIT drill January 15th. 2. On Saturday, January 18th at 9am there will be an Ice Water Rescue Drill. 3. Thank you to Windom and Hillcrest and all the mutual aid companies for the fire at Hunter’s Ridge. 4. Thank you to the Board for the upgrades to the training room. It is 95% completed. 5. At Monday’s drill Pat Fitzgerald from the Orchard Park Police will be available for photos for the badges. 6. Question as to when the RedAlert will be ready for the fire companies to start using? Per Board training sessions are needed.

Hillcrest Assistant Chief, Al Marino: 1. Hillcrest will do a standby for the Orchard Park Recreation Department for the Winter Carnival on January 26th.

Windom Assistant Chief, Guy Carey: 1. David Eiskant will be lieutenant of Windom 1. 2. John Booker will be Engineer of Windom 883.

NEW MEMBERSHIPS AND REMOVALS:

***Orchard Park*** None

***Hillcrest*** None

***Windom*** Motion made by Commissioner Putnam, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to accept Veronica Batt to the District Rolls. All in favor; motion carried. Motion made by Commissioner Wierzbowski, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to remove Jerome Knavel from the District Rolls. All in favor; motion carried.

COMMISSIONER’S REPORTS

Commissioner Wierzbowski: 1. Motion made by Commissioner Wierzbowski, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to re-up the membership in the 100 Club for $100.00. All in favor; motion carried. 2. Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to use Healthworks again this year for the physicals. All in favor; motion carried. 3. Motion by Commissioner Wierzbowski, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to purchase 3 Stryker Stretchers after the two (2) fly cars are purchased per Commissioner Benning’s request. All in favor; motion carried. Commissioner Machemer to get with Treasurer Rogers to look over the financials with regards to these purchases. 4. Motion made by Commissioner Wierzbowski, seconded by Commissioner Benning to amend the motion made at the December 2013 meeting with regards to purchasing one (1) Stryker Stretcher so that only three (3) will be purchased not four (4). All in favor; motion carried.

Commissioner Benning:

1. A letter has been received from OPFD-EMS to purchase Chevy Suburbans, EMS 2 for $31,000.00 and EMS 5 for $28,000.00 with proof of the fair market value for the vehicles. Since there is no ongoing need for both vehicles, Motion made by Commissioner Benning, seconded by Commissioner Putnam to accept the offer subject to a Permissive Referendum and the Secretary is authorized to prepare & publish the Notice of Permissive Referendum in the Orchard Park Bee. All in favor; motion carried.

Commissioner Putnam:

1. Would like to commend everyone for the excellent job done at the Hunter’s Ridge fire. 2. The Training and coat rooms at Central look great. 3. Just a reminder that the hardships are due next month.

Commissioner Machemer: No report

Commissioner Eiskant: 1. There will be twelve (12) allowed to go to FDIC and the per diem rate is $61.00 per day. All original receipts must be turned in to Treasurer Rogers no later than five (5) days after returning.

Attorney Chelus: 1. Received a letter from UpstateTower regarding interest in working with Hillcrest and the Police to erect a tower at Hillcrest Fire Company on Ellicott Road. The Board will check out. Letter will be given to the Board for review. Per Commissioner Benning the Police are moving to the Ridge. Commissioner Wierzbowski will check when he goes to work on Thursday. 2. With regards to Obama care- the fire districts would have to offer health insurance to all volunteer firefighters. There has been some attempt by our Congressmen to get the IRS to change their interpretation of the preliminary regulations and to exempt volunteer firefighters from Obama Care. Have a copy of a letter from the Treasury Department that states in their final regulations they are going to exempt the fire and ems service from Obama Care.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None

NEW BUSINESS: Firefighter Jon Torre asked the board who the official Chief is of Hillcrest. The board is meeting tomorrow night with the Ethics Committee on that subject and will be resolved by the next meeting. Just hopes that the Board keeps the best interest of Hillcrest in mind. With that being said, Commissioner Putnam noted that there has been $1000.00 per each fire company put in the budget for recruitment

BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR:

Firefighter Andy Geist stated there is a need for a snowblower at Hillcrest. Motion made by Commissioner Wierzbowski, seconded by Commissioner Machemer to purchase a snowblower for Hillcrest from Lowes not to exceed $800.00. All in favor; motion carried. Assistant Chief Mrugalski stated that the OPFC will be out of service on Saturday, January 18th for their Installation Dinner. Also the North Station exterior door to the day room needs weather stripping, and the siren at the North Station is not working. Windom Chief Lobur stated the Installation Dinner for Windom is February 8th and Windom will be out of service. David Stromecki from Brown & Stromecki Insurance had questions on dispatching as a team or a district and how to track for the Service Awards Program. Per Commissioner Benning; should be “punched out” over the system. Hillcrest Firefighter George Preschoff would like an apology from the Board on the fact that there is no Chief. Firefighter Andrew Kowalski stated that a back-up generator is needed for the repeater system in case dispatch loses power. Per Commissioner Putnam the back-up generator is stored in the garage. Per the Commissioners; since there is no policy in place for this type of situations, the Board will look into this matter. The Chief of Hillcrest will be announced at the next meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners in February. Per Attorney Chelus the Company has a “hold over” Chief until the next meeting. The Board, per the Town Law has the final say to accept and if they don’t accept then it goes back to that company to re-nominate someone. Firefighter Kowalski still had some issues with the generator problem. District Training Officer Hanrahan reminded him that the Board stated they would pursue this. Per District Chief there is a telephone alerting system in place. If it is dispatched correctly per Commissioner Benning it all goes through the cell phones. Per Assistant Chief Mrugalski there is a delay and the Board needs to look at the situation with regards to a generator at the Police Station and the Board will.

PRESENTATION OF BILLS AND ACTION ON THE SAME:

There are no bills to be paid.

MEETING ADJOURNED:

There being no further business to come before this Board, motion made by Commissioner Machemer, seconded by Commissioner Putnam that the meeting be adjourned. All in favor; motion carried.

Meeting adjourned 8:46 PM

Respectfully submitted, Roberta Buczkowski, Secretary