Minutes 06-09-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Yuhasz said that generally the volunteer fire departments have an annual meeting with the residents. He asked what New Hope does to publicize these meetings to the public. Mike Tapp said that they advertise in the newspaper, place it on a message board in front of the station, and send emails. Will Bernard said that each year they have a Christmas tree sale and an annual breakfast to invite their constituents into their facility and to interact with them. Commissioner Gordon asked about the size of the area New Hope served before Chapel Hill and Carrboro annexed, and if they did not have to serve those areas, if there would be any reductions in costs. Mike Tapp said that for Chapel Hill, these are areas behind Chapel Hill Station #4 and Weaver Dairy Road Extension. Carrboro's annexations are in the Homestead Road and Rogers Road area. Historically, this has been a low-volume call area. Will Bernard said that even though they have lost area and may continue to lose additional area, there are certain costs that are not response based. The fire district will still have to maintain the current vehicle fleet. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the protection classification grade. Mike Tapp said that it is Protection Class 9-e. A letter has been submitted to the North Carolina Department of Insurance requesting that the grade of the district improve one insurance grade. He hopes to lower the rating to at least an 8 or a 7. This could save money for homeowners in their home insurance. He said that it is important that a rate increase be offset by a decrease in insurance. Chair Pelissier agreed about the grading issue and the decrease in insurance. Orange Grove: President of the Board of Directors Bill Waddell and Fire Chief Tommy Holmes were present. This is on page 20-4. Paul Laughton said that this district is asking for a %2-cent increase going from 3.58 cents to 4.08 cents per hundred dollar valuation. This increase would generate approximately $37,000. He said that on the attachment it lists how much one cent generates for each of the districts and also fund balances. Bill Waddell explained the requested increase. This district needs a new roof on the fire station and also additional radios. There is already a new roof on the station because it was beginning to leak, so they took out a loan. This increase is to pay back the loan. He said that this is not a one-year request because they have deferred a turnout gear program and they will be resuming this with the increase. Also, more radios will need to be purchased. There has also been an increase in the worker's compensation insurance and this is doubling. He said that they have not sent the letter to the Department of Insurance for ISO, but they are working on this now. He said that there was a claim made several weeks ago that there might be a decrease in administrative costs because of Orange County Emergency Services. He said that this is not true, or is unlikely. He said that this could be discussed in September at the proposed meeting. He said that these are his own comments and are not held by all fire district presidents. He said that Orange Grove Fire District has a diverse membership and the cooperation with other fire departments has increased over the years. He said that the current state of emergency services is that they are hostile to volunteer organizations. He pointed to restrictions placed upon South Orange Rescue Squad, which, in his view, will cause the ultimate destruction of that organization. He quoted the Director of Emergency Services as saying, "we only like volunteers who work for us." He said that the administrative practices of Emergency Services are not quite in line with what they do at Orange Grove. It is his belief,