Friday, March 29, 2024

New time, day for Chelan Fire Commissioner meetings

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CHELAN – Chelan Fire and Rescue Board of Commissioners unanimously voted on a resolution to adapt a new meeting schedule. Meetings will now be held at 3:00 p.m. every third Wednesday of the month.

During the last meeting of 2018, the idea of changing the meeting time and day was discussed by Fire Chief Tim Lemon and board members.

By having the meetings pushed another week will allow staff to have a full financial report for the Commissioners. The change in time came from the staffs perspective of having the meeting be done before five.

Lemon stated that time change of the meetings won’t affect the public’s attendance. In fact, in 2018, on average 2.9 public members showed up to the meetings. Only four times last year, no one showed up to the meetings outside from the members of the fire department.

The board agreed to the change knowing that locals will show up to the meetings regardless of the time change, if something being discussed is of their interest.

Assistant Fire Chief Brandon Asher and  Fleet Manager John Goyne  traveled to Alabama in order to inspect a possible ladder truck to replace Ladder 71.

Asher reported back on the trip and the ladder truck to the board during the Jan. 9 commissioner meeting.

“John and me went out to Alabama,” he said, “the original truck we looked, has a lot of nice features and whatnot, but it was just worn out … we started looking around other different options that were there and came across a Pierce.” reported Asher.

The Pierce ladder truck is three year newer than the original truck. After test driving it, both talked to the sales man. Overall, “it’s a really nice truck … it meets all of our needs, the community is going to love it,” said Asher.

The truck pumps 2,000 gallons per minute and it also comes with a generator. “It makes it an easy truck for us to get some training.” However, it doesn’t come with a phone system.

According to Asher, the truck should arrive sometime in February.

Updates on the rescue boat were also given. Lemon informed the board on the great positive feedback from other fire districts on the project. The districts agreed that it was a great project to work towards. Committees will now work on finding different options to fund the project.

To operate boat, Commissioner Russ Jones explained that based on a monthly eight hour use of the boat the annual operation costs is under $4,000, with an estimated cost to fund the boat of $18,000.

On Jan. 1,  the SAFER grant temporary positions came to an end, leaving CFR with only two full-time staff. Deputy Fire Chief Mark Donnell stated that most of the temporary SAFER grant firefighters are now back filling in stipend shifts. With the recruit academy starting at the end of the month, both Donnell and Asher believe more people will sign up for those open stipends.

Chelan Fire and Rescue’s Award Banquet will be held on Feb. 9 starting at 6 p.m. This year it be taking place at Campbell’s Resort.

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