John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors set sick leave hours during a regular online meeting on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, at 7 p.m. The Board also discussed the open officer post, additional hours for the gender discrimination inquiry and approved moving regular meetings to the third Wednesday in the month.

Board Chair Iain Irwin-Powell introduced a resolution to amend the sick leave policy for part-time and temporary employees. This group is now entitled to earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 48 hours per year. Previously they were not eligible for sick time.

The Board agreed to paid sick time and vacation according to the Healthy, Families and Workplaces Act and backdated the change to January 1, 2021, and the Board approved.

The Board discussed the officer job posting and methodology. Irwin-Powell said they are trying to make sure they have the right person to fill the role. How do we find the person that has the organizational fit? He requested that two Board members sit on a committee and they will sort out who that should be. Staff and volunteers want input and they will solicit that.

Fire Chief Rick Dirr said he will work on a rough plan and supporting documentation. The original staff was hired in 2009. The Board liked the idea of a peer board.

Irwin-Powell said the next step is to look at the application pool and then draw on that, and he will get example interview questions to the Board.

Regarding the CPS Gender discrimination inquiry, Irwin-Powell requested 10 additional hours, and the Board approved it to finish the inquiry as soon as possible.

The Board approved a motion to move the regular meeting to the third Wednesday of the month for accounting purposes. Treasurer Todd Wieseler said he is requesting this for accounting purposes.

Account information isn’t ready for every meeting. Checks aren’t in the reporting because they haven’t been accrued yet, so often there are board questions that cannot be answered as the information is incomplete. That lack of clarity delays decisions.

If meetings are on the third Wednesday, staff could send out the reports the week prior in case the Board has questions. If it’s the third week, they will have all the information and have time to look over everything, Wieseler said.

Chief Dirr said if they move to third week, the Board will have a special meeting in early December to approve the budget by December 15. Irwin-Powell questioned if  they could approve the budget in the November board meeting given the new timing.

The Board approved moving the meetings to the third Wednesday starting in April.

During Chief Dirr’s report, he said that last night Rik Henderson presented new codes to the Nederland Board of Trustees and is working with Town staff to push new codes along. He has met with a lot of people about codes and it has taken a ton of work.

Dirr has four new volunteer applicants and the process of onboarding them is moving along well. The goal for the new applicants is to get them wildland ready as soon as they can. Some of them are “balls of fire” and keen to progress.

He has an open position for a paramedic shift officer, and has posted an ad for statewide distribution.

The Fire Department had a pretty busy week with two injured skiers at the Eldora Mountain Resort. He is working with the ski area on the cases.

Wieseler asked about standards of cover and how many are short in covering incidents. Dirr said he would like to have three personnel on every rescue call, five at every accident, and seven for house fires. The board discussed the collection of metrics to measure how well the department was meeting those goals.

During the Treasurer’s Report, Wieseler said the District’s funds total $282,144,38 with $276,000 in savings. In summary, general funds are $190,000 and that is more than we need to keep functioning.

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

(Originally published in the March 11, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)