Minutes of the Meeting held On November 2, 2005

Attending Members: Ron Snow (Chairman); Gerald Schiefer (VC); Mary Esther Putnam

Absent: Ryon Gardner

Also Present: Steve Robinson (Fire Chief) and George Cropper (Treasurer)

Also Absent: Beverly Udell is gone to training (George is Acting Secretary for the night)

Guests: Fred Pendleton

1. General Business: a/b. Welcome – The meeting was called to order at 6:02 PM by Chairman Ron Snow and the Pledge of Allegiance was said.

c. Review/Approval of the 'Minutes of The Meeting' from August 3 and September 7, 2005 (there wasn't a meeting for October.) - Minutes were previewed ahead of time by the Board members. Approval of the minutes was given, after some slight changes voiced by Fred. Gerald moved to approve based on the modifications, Mary Esther seconded the motion. All were in favor.

d. There were not any building permit applications to be reviewed. * Mary Esther had questions on a sub-division and road building. Discussion ensued after that: Was it approved as a sub-division? Fred Pendleton offered to check into it with the County. We also have questions about the water. Must have a recorded sub-division plat before they begin work. * Ryon and Mary Esther had both signed a building permit in the prior week. No location - will follow up.

e. Board Member Reports: * Ron - Ryon's and Victor's Board positions are both due to expire and therefore will be vacant. Applications have been submitted to the County and the Commissioners will pick from those applications and announce in December who will be our next Board members. * Gerald - Siesmograph station will be put in on the mountain near New Harmony on Forest Service land. It will be tied to a siesmology grid. * This month starts a new water year. 2.4 inches thus far this year. * Forest Service will be burning around the valley once the storms come.

g. f. Fire Chief's Report: Steve reported that in September there were no fire callouts, but there were two calls for EMT. October also held no fire callouts, and no EMT calls, but we did have a call for search and rescue. * Batteries were replaced in Engine #142 and Brush Truck #142. Service for Engine #141 is scheduled for next week. * Wildland training starts in Santa Clara next week. * Two people want to start EMS training at a cost of $1800 each. * The County will not let us have any more sand bags. * Fuel costs have gone way up. * We will have to start trucks more often in the winter. * Alan Gardner wants to know if we will finish the burn on the river. Firefighters are willing. There will be some fuel costs involved, but it will mean a $2000 income for the fire department. Currently about ½ the job is done. * Discussed FEMA grant. Steve showed an example of what our new truck will look like. FEMA awarded $250,000, which means that they will pay $237,500 and we will need to cover just $12,500 towards the new truck. There will be additional expenses for hoses and other equipment towards the truck. It will have a compressed air system. Additional costs could be up to $20,000, which will come from either the fee increase, or our reserve savings account, or our wild fire account. We must represent to FEMA that we do indeed have the monies to pay our matching portion. * The truck could be available in March or April of 2006, but more likely it won't be until May. All of our matching payments will come in 2006. We don't have to make a payment on the truck until it is delivered. The truck vendor will fly two persons to the manufacturer's to review assembly of the truck. We must pay for transportation of the truck from Indiana to Pine Valley. There will be expenses to get two people to Indiana, plus fuel costs involved to get the truck here. Wondering if someone might have sky miles that they would be willing to donate to send the two people to get the truck? * Bills for Steve Robinson: reimbursements for misc. items $305.53 and fuel bill at the Veyo Merc. $92.65 was reviewed and approved. * Our next grant request will be for upgrades on our SCBA equipment which is very outdated. * Fred talked about the original fee system in the old Pine Valley newsletter histories and added information about trailers, etc.

g. Treasurer Report: George reported on 'profit and loss' for year-to-date. (Copy Attached). We are operating at a deficit of $13,949 as of 11/2/05. We do expect some grant reimbursement and other income to make up part of that (but not all of it) at year's end. * Discussion once again came up about the fee structure. Gerald gave a rundown of fee structures around the county. Many fees are on a levied tax structure. Discussed tax levy and vacant land versus land with structures. Gerald says that we need to accumulate a lot of data before having a public hearing. Numbers as of $125 to $150 for a possible new fee structure were mentioned. Need findings to support the increase request. The Board overall felt that there needs to be more money to maintain our level of operations as our fixed costs now nearly equal our income. * Suggestions of info we need: How many houses are there in Pine Valley? What do we project income and expenditures to be? Do we need more money for training purposes? Other considerations: Sandbags, no money for replacing equipment, batteries, gloves, etc. * Steve suggested an increase to $150 to cover expenses. * Dave Patterson is supposed to come to the December meeting so we would like to have the data for the above questions by then. We would then like to have a public meeting in early January for fee and budget.

At 7:10 PM, Gerald moved for the meeting adjournment. Mary Esther seconded.
The next Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 7, 2005.