BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS MONTHLY MEETING June 9, 2004 ATTENDEES: Comm. Elizabeth Bomba - Chairperson Comm. Ralph Chiumento (arrived at 7:40 p.m.) Comm. Karen Pells (left during Executive Session) Comm. Patrick Rose (arrived at 8:30 p.m.) Comm. Norman Comerford Attorney: Treasurer: Secretary: Gerard Comatos James Passikoff Renée O Neill Chairperson Bomba opened the meeting of the Arlington Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners Monthly Meeting at 7:30 p.m. I. Comm. Bomba requested Comm. Comerford and Comm. Bomba to review Abstracts 5B & 6A. II. MINUTES A. May 12, 2004 Board of Fire Commissioners Monthly Meeting. A motion was made by Comm. Comerford and seconded by Comm. Bomba to approve the Minutes as printed. III. MONTHLY REPORTS No reports given unless otherwise noted. A. Service Awards- Comm. Chiumento B. District Inspections - Chiefs C. District Officers/Chief Liaison - Comm. Rose D. Sub Station - Comm. Rose & Comm. Chiumento
E. EMS & Paramedic Liaison - Comm. Bomba F. Public Relations- Comm. Bomba G. Equipment Maintenance - Comm. Rose and Comm. Pells H. Building & Grounds- Comm. Rose and Comm. Comerford I. Capital Equipment - Comm. Chiumento and Comm. Comerford J. Union Negotiations & Contract - Comm. Chiumento and Comm. Rose K. Career Staff Liaison - Comm. Pells L. Volunteer Recruitment - Comm. Pells 1. Four applicants ready for approval by the Board: A. Ahuja Arshiya, Station 3, FF/EMS B. Glenn Pascoe, Station 4, FF C. Charles Fager, Jr., Station 4, FF/EMS D. Daniel Emery, Station 5, 16-17yo FF A motion was made by Comm. Pells and seconded by Comm. Bomba to approve the aforementioned applicants as members of the Arlington Fire District. - Motion Approved. M.. Volunteer Liaison - Comm. Comerford IV. CORRESPONDENCE A. Received Fire District Affairs - April 2004 & May 2004. B. Letter dated May 12, 2004 from Senator Stephan Saland responding to the letter sent by the Board of Fire Commissioners regarding the resolution passed by County Legislature. He supports this and is cosponsor of three Senate bills that would provide personal income tax credit for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. C. Thank you card received from Retired Firefighter William Tompkins thanking AFD for the plaque presented and for the 30 years of service. D. Letter dated May 12, 2004 from FireLine regarding renewing our subscription in the amount of $200 for a one year subscription. A motion was made by Comm. Bomba and seconded by Comm. Comerford to renew AFD s subscription to FireLine in the amount of $200. E. Fund raising form submitted by Croft Corners Fire Company to hold a golf tournament on August 5, 2004 from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Casperkill County Club and Croft Corners Fire Company Annex. A motion was made by Comm. Comerford and seconded by Comm.
Pells to approve the fund raising golf tournament to be held on August 5, 2004 from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Casperkill Country Club and Croft Corners Fire Company Annex. F. Thank you card from Rochdale Fire Company thanking AFD for donating a new flag for the services of Bruce Pells. G. Thank you card from the Town of Poughkeepsie and the Planning Committee for the support for Town of Poughkeepsie Community Day. H. Pictures received from Dutchess County American Legion from their Heroism Awards ceremony held on June 6 th for Lt. Madison, FF Fishwick and FF Cox who received a Life Saving Award for the March 18 th carbon monoxide incident on Coachlight Drive. - Comm. Bomba stated that they make Arlington proud. V. DONATIONS A motion was made by Comm. Pells and seconded by Comm. Comerford to turn over the total donation amount of $ 50.00 to the Four Company Fund and the total amount of $40.00 to the Car Seat Program Fund. NAME Mr. & Mrs. Goebler Suhair Demelo Susan Pung REASON Assistance Received Car Seat Installation Car Seat Installation VI. PERSONNEL A. Letter dated May 18, 2004 from Office Manager William Doyle to FF Pete Davis, FF Bohack, FF Cassinelli, FF Josh Brown, FF Tarquinio, Jr., FF Tompkins, FF West and FF Chip Davis thanking them for upgrading the memorial section at HQ. B. Change of Status received June 8, 2004 from Frederick Brandt, Station 4 - Add EMS. VII. SCHOOL REQUESTS A motion was made by Comm. Comerford and seconded by Comm. Pells accept the attendance of the following members to the schools/seminars listed: A. Antonio Peixoto: Rescue Tech: Basic, June 8-23, 2004 at New Hackensack FD. to B. FF Michael Rusnock: Child Seat Tech, June 21-24, 2004 at Fairview.
C. FF Josh Brown: ACLS, June 24-25, 2004 at DCC South. D. FF Howard Adams: Fire Officer III, June 26-27, 2004 at Fire Academy. E. FF Ken Davidson: Haz Mat Technician Refresher, June 28 - July 2, 2004 at DCDER. F. Lt. Andrew Mihans: NYS Fire Instructor Special Certification, July 10-11, 2004 at Fire Academy. G. Lt. Rick Andersen: NYS Fire Instructor Special Certification, July 10-11, 2004 at Fire Academy. VIII. COMMISSIONERS ITEMS A. Comm. Bomba 1. Would like to have one of the pictures sent to FireLine for the Life Saving Award that Lt. Madison, FF Fishwick and FF Cox received. -Comm. Comerford asked if this could be posted on our website. DC Pells stated that he can. 2. Presented information that Office Manager Doyle received on the Volunteer Firefighter Benefits Law coverage. A motion was made by Comm. Bomba and seconded by Comm. Pells to approve the New York State Public Entities Safety Group 497 as our VFBL coverage. 3. Two (2) Items for Executive Session, Contractural 4. Questioned Attorney Comatos about Lutheran Care. Has it been resolved? He stated that he will address it in Executive Session. B. Comm. Chiumento - No Items. C. Comm. Pells - No Items. D. Comm. Comerford - 1. One (1) Item for Executive Session, Contractural. 2. DC Pells, AC Roberts and himself have been talking with the companies getting input on combining drills, working with the career staff, to get to know each other, ease of getting volunteer hours. Feedback has been positive, on the right track.
IX. CHIEFS / ADMINISTRATIVE ITEMS A. Chief John Richardson 1. Union Safety and Health Committee needs to have a two District officers as per their contract. He suggested one Commissioner and one Assistant Chief be on the Committee. - Comm. Chiumento agreed to be on this committee. 2. Hose Cart - Received information on this from a member who attended FDIC. Roles up to 5" hose and hauls it. Suggests we try one for $1000 (out of the Chiefs budget), which is $300 off if we buy before end of June, then if it meets our needs, purchase more. - DC Pells stated that we should get a demonstration first, then think about purchasing. Ask vendor to hold the price for us. The Board agreed. A motion was made by Comm. Chiumento and seconded by Comm. Comerford to purchase the Hose Cart for $1000, pending a demonstration. 3. August of last year, talked about purchasing more Rescue Truck tools for the outside houses. Suggests at this time to purchase a battery operated Extrication Tool, in the amount of $12,690, out of Capital. Three would be $38,070. A motion was made by Comm. Chiumento and seconded by Comm. Comerford to purchase one battery operated Extrication Tool, in the amount not to exceed $15K to come out of Capital Equipment Reserve Fund, subject to a permissive referendum. RESOLVED, that pursuant to Section 6-g of the General Municipal Law, there is hereby appropriated from the Capital Reserve Fund of the Arlington Fire District in the Town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, the sum not to exceed $15, 000.00 to finance, pay for, and be applied toward the purchase of a battery-operated Extrication Tool. This foregoing resolution is adopted subject to a permissive referendum 4. Discussion of the 4 th ambulance moved to HQ. His approach to this is to have it manned out at Rochdale for the next 4-5 months during the day. The staff at Rochdale would pick it up in the morning and man it during the day. Medic would use the
fly car. Fire calls in Rochdale would work same as ROM and Croft, put 3274 off shift and respond to the fire call, and EMS calls would be first due and HQ EMS calls would be second due. At night, HQ would man it. Lengthy discussion on this issue, re: manning. DC Pells stated that it will stress the system by adding a piece of equipment, without supplementing it with the people to help run it; definite need for EMS people and he is not in favor of putting the medic in the fly car. EMS Director Kloepfer is in favor of this plan and using the fly car again, and possibly using the fly cars at all calls. Still need more manpower. Union has issues with the manpower. Comm. Chiumento is for it, Comm. Comerford, Bomba, Pells and Rose stated to table this for now, needs more information, more input. Comm. Bomba stated that she wants the Union Safety and Health Committee, all the Duty Lieutenants, and Chiefs to hold a meeting on June 16 th at 7:00 p.m. at HQ to discuss the pros and cons of this and bring it back to the Board to review. B. Deputy Chief Jeff Pells 1. Received information from Steve Callahan re: Fuel Tank Storage. For two 5,000 tanks, $200K - $250K provided expenses, plus $5,000 preliminary layout, $20K - $25K estimated design fee. -Comm. Rose stated that it too much money when fire suppression is not included, Comm. Bomba agreed. No action taken by the Board. 2. To this date, has not received comments back on the Volunteer Job Descriptions. 3. Office Manager Doyle will be at the next meeting to discuss cost on proposals i.e. retaining wall at HQ, landscaping, etc. High cost is $18K for three areas of improvement. Asked OM Doyle to have them break it down in three parts, to do one this year, others next year. 4. St. Simeon and St. Anna, received notice of complaints regarding bills. 911 has added street names to identify the buildings easier, to help ease with the billings. Still won t be 100% because 911 calls will go through City 911 for those 6 buildings, which will have to be turned over. 5. Raymond Avenue Round -a-bouts. Showed the Board the layout of the proposed round-a-bouts. Concerns on damage to the engines, would have to drive over them, will only be one lane, how will cars move out of the way? Talks were made on
traffic pre-emptors. 6. Read an article where a Pennsylvania junior firefighter died while responding to a call where the Feds refused the public service benefits. Asking Attorney Comatos to look into the laws for our 16/17 year old Firefighters, if they are considered firefighters and entitled to the benefits. Thinks that they would be covered under VFBL. 7. Computer Proposal. DC Pells suggested that we replace the ones proposed for this year and budget the other ones for next year. Approximately $21K for this year, 3 laptops and 11 desktops, which are five plus years old. Comm. Bomba stated that she didn t get a chance to review the proposal yet. Comm. Comerford suggested that we look into a computer server system to save money, have Tom Duderstadt look into this for us. No action taken by the Board. 8. One (1) Item for Executive Session, Personnel. C. EMS Director John Kloepfer - No Items. D. Treasurer Jim Passikoff - No Items. E. Attorney Gerard Comatos 1. One (1) for Executive Session. F. Director of Volunteer Recruitment Michael Hogan 1. Attended Town Day and handed out flyers for recruitment. No motion was made, the Board took a five minute break and adjourned to Executive Session 9:30 p.m. at X. EXECUTIVE SESSION The Board came out of Executive Session at 11:11 p.m and returned to Open Session. XI. CONTRACT A motion was made by Comm. Bomba and seconded by Comm. Rose to accept the new negotiated contract with Deputy Chief Jeff Pells. XII. ABSTRACT A motion was made by Comm. Comerford and seconded by Comm. Bomba to approve Abstracts 5B and 6A in the amount of $197,056.73, consisting of 144 transactions.
With no further business to conduct, a motion was made by Comm. Chiumento and seconded by Comm. Rose that we adjourn at 11:12 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Renée O Neill District Secretary