The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors reviewed the performance improvement plan for Fire Chief Rick Dirr during a regular meeting on Wednesday, June16, 2021. The Board met in person, and Zoom was available for the public.

Chair Iain Irwin-Powell said the Board had a special meeting the night before, June 15, to review the results of the survey of the Chief’s performance improvement plan and discussion of the monitoring period from November 3, 2020, to April 30, 2021.

The Board proposed an Executive Session, but the employee wished this discussion would take place in public. Irwin-Powell said the Board spent a lot of time last night going through results of surveys sent to membership regarding Chief Dirr’s performance. The survey results were unbalanced, he said.

Board Member Henry Zurbrugg sees items the chief can approve upon with the support of the Board, and areas that are pretty positive.

Board members suggested moving Dirr from Fire Chief to an administration and operations chief, thus creating distance from the staff. With the resignation of Fire Marshall Rik Henrickson, they could create an operations manager position. Board members said this could be an opportunity to refine this organization and write job descriptions for every job and the certifications needed. This would be a salaried position. The Board approved the idea, but needed to get community buy-in.

Following Patrick Richardson’s resignation from the Board, Irwin Powell said he has posted the position announcement in The Mountain-Ear.

The Board has been discussing purchasing shirts for members. Irwin- Powell said that 36 shirts with one set of embroidery would cost about $1,500 at $50 per shirt.

Treasurer Todd Wieseler reported that the District has a bank account total of $22,840.52 as of the end of May. An audit is due at the end of June that was supposed to be completed for this meeting. He may have to file an extension and schedule a work session.

The next meeting of the Nederland Fire District Board of Directors will be on July 21, 2021, at 7 p.m. For more information go to https://www.nfpd.org/.