Minutes 06-09-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

The Board of Directors President is Tony Blake, the Fire Chief is Jerry Lloyd, and the Assistant Fire Chief is Phillip Nasseri. This information is on page 20-5 of the budget document. The district is asking for a one-cent tax increase from 6 cents to 7 cents. This will generate approximately $37,000 for the district. Chief Jerry Lloyd said that the reason for the increase is to provide the funding for a 6,000-square foot addition and a 2,800 square-foot renovation to the existing station. He said that the building was built in 1986 and has never had any renovations. The existing facility is unable to house all of the trucks, has no storage areas, and the training room capacity is inadequate to hold all of the members. The new addition will allow all trucks to be housed in one building; it will have storage areas for equipment, and will provide a clean air room. This will bring the building up to code for ADA and provide offices, a radio room, and a training room. He gave the history of the strategic plan adopted in 2002 by the district. The ISO rating is 7. An architect firm has been hired to oversee any building additions with a cost of $600,000, with a possible start time of fall 2011. If they can proceed now with this building project, they are estimating a possible 35-40% savings or cost avoidance because of decreasing building costs. Commissioner Gordon asked if the addition has anything to do with expanding beyond the current district. Chief Lloyd said that they are not actively seeking Damascus fire district but he has heard the discussion about the possibility of having all of the County fire districts protected by an Orange County Fire Department. He said that they have two small areas that are beyond the six miles, which is a critical area for homeowners' insurance. There are two slivers of property that are along the eastern district, which borders Carrboro and Damascus Fire District. The long-range plan is to build a second station on the eastern side. This station would be more than adequate to cover Damascus Fire District for a good portion of its six miles. If the County is interested in that, then they will discuss it. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the status of conversations with UNC as far as paying more for fire protection. Chief Lloyd said that UNC has some buildings in the district that have no increase of compensation. This year, there was a letter that said that UNC would increase the compensation to Chapel Hill and all of the rest of the fire departments in the state would not receive an increase, and White Cross would get a 10% decrease. Commissioner Jacobs asked for a copy of this letter. Tony Blake said that the USDA has some very favorable loan money now to build fire departments. Taking advantage of that low interest would be a savings in the long run for the taxpayers. Commissioner McKee said that, having experience with Caldwell Fire Department and paid staff versus volunteers, this accounts for a great deal of the disparity between the costs at these volunteer fire departments. He said that it does cost more to run with paid staff versus volunteer staff. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the comment from Bill Waddell about there being no fire marshal and said that at the May 26th meeting, the Manager told the Board that the Emergency Services Director is the Fire Marshal now. 2. Pay and Benefits Presentation Frank Clifton said that there are no pay increases proposed for County employees except for the fact that there are a few positions that are below the living wage and those will be increased. The County living wage is determined to be $10.81 an hour. The 401(k) has been maintained for this year and there is a %2-percent increase in the State retirement system for local government employees. The significant issue for the County is the health insurance costs, which are increasing significantly.