Chelan Fire and Rescue commissioners updated

CHELAN – Fire and rescue commissioners and staff gathered for their regular meeting, Wednesday, April 11 at Station 71.
Initiating the meeting’s agenda was Fire Chief Tim Lemon with the Chief’s Report. “Response calls from March,” he began, “we’re up 10 from last year for the month of March, already had two brush fires and assisted on a structure fire in Manson.” The district has also participated in three automatic aid calls, he added, as well as seeing eight overlapping calls so far this month. Overlapping calls refer to an instance when firefighters are at one scene and a call comes in for assistance to another scene. “Overall, in January, February and March,” he pointed out, “year-to-date, we’re up 47 calls from what we did last year.” The district has been reviewing the calls to try and understand the increase, however there has been no real significant event that would drive the calls up, he explained.
Covering the operations side of the department, Deputy Chief Mark Donnell began by discussing staffing and volunteer levels. “The recruit class right now,” he began, “stands at up to 30 members, for all three departments of Chelan, Entiat and Orondo.” The recruits have completed classroom training and are getting ready to begin field exercises, he said. “Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will be able to red card certify them,” he expressed, “so that they’ll at least be capable of doing wildland with wildland season coming.” Recruit class graduation is scheduled to take place Thursday, June 14 at Station 71.
Annexation proposals were discussed briefly during the regular meeting. The Chelan Falls and Navarre Coulee annexations are ready to go and talk to the assessors, explained Lemon. Friday, April 20, a meeting also took place with residents of the South Shore area to discuss to go through the process, however are still waiting to hear back from the Knapps Coulee area.
Moving into resolutions, Lemon reapproached Resolution 2018-03, which focused on surplus items in the district. These items include the iPads looking to be replaced by Surface Pros and miscellaneous surplus equipment. The resolution was originally brought before the board in March and was tabled at the request of Commissioner Phil Moller to allow time for review of the items to be considered a surplus. After review, the adoption of the resolution was passed by commissioners unanimously.
Concluding the unfinished business, was a discussion on the vacant commissioner seat two position. “We’ve had six applicants on file,” said Lemon, “and have copies of those for each of the board members to take a look at and come to a consensus on an individual.” Commissioners will have the next month to review the applications with the hope of narrowing down the candidates to a single individual.
Upcoming events for the district include the Commissioner’s Conference in Chelan, Saturday, June 2 and the Recruit Class 2018-01 Graduation, Thursday, June 14. Before moving on from calendar items, however, Commissioner Moller took a moment to mention the invitation of the family of the fallen police officer out of Pierce County, he explained. “We’ll have that family over here to honor him in the parade,” he stated, “which will probably end up being a large contingency of police officers.”
After completing discussion of the agenda items, Commissioners Russ Jones and Moller opened up a conversation amongst each other, as policy doesn’t provide for commissioners to communicate on district related items outside of public meetings or hearings. One particularly noteworthy item included addressing the possibility of moving the time of the regular commissioner’s meetings. While no action can be taken during this time, it is a thought that will be further discussed and looked into for further down the road.
Chelan Fire and Rescue 7 commissioners meet for regular meetings every second Wednesday of the month beginning at 4 p.m. The next scheduled meeting will be Wednesday, May 9.