John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors approved the application for two grants during a regular online meeting on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, at 7 p.m. The Board also discussed several old and new business initiatives.

Chair Iain Irwin-Powell said they are looking for a Lucas CPR device. It is an essential piece of equipment, and asked the Board to adopt a resolution supporting the grant application for the device. The device frees responders up from CPR for other tasks and can be used on a patient that needs to be transported by helicopter. The grant is a 50/50 match, meaning the department would be funding approximately $7500 for the device. The Board approved the grant.

Fire Chief Rick Dirr recommended the application for the AFG Grant be used to fund radios. They applied for it last year with the Timberline Fire District and didn’t get it awarded. 

The grant would fund four portable radios for Wildland deployment and ten portable radios for normal operations. The decision to purchase portable handsets was made as they are more flexible than fixed radios in vehicles.

Dirr said the District would be paying 5 percent of total costs. Some members have these radios at home, one per officer, and there are rarely enough to go around on a search and rescue.

Board Member Ray Willis asked it makes sense to have these mounted in the trucks. Dirr that is one way to have one in each truck, but you never know which truck will be going out. 

Dirr said he will put the numbers together. It may make sense to put some in the trucks and others portable. 

The Board approved moving ahead with the Chief’s request to reserve  $20,000 to fund the AFG and EMS grants this year. 

Irwin-Powell requested $960 per year for a new member portal on the website portal. It would provide a single point of contact for the members, and would allow easier sharing of department information, and they could have an area just for the Board. Dirr said they could have a central deposit for policies and have training videos instead of emailing links.

The Board agreed it was worth a try, and approved the request, because they struggle with sharing documents.

Dirr requested financing for new Bunker Gear. They have $15,000 in the budget to get recruits new gear, and he recommended using the gear replacement reserve fund in the budget and using that for equipment this year. That puts it at less than 10 sets, and they might need an additional two sets. He wanted the flexibility if he had other people applying.

He said he was just asking for the $5,000 to apply toward $15,000 in the budget and other expenses. Irwin-Powell said he recommended the action as they need to get the volunteers on board and equip them appropriately. The Board approved providing direction to the chief to use the budget and reserved funds to best equip the department as he sees fit. 

At the January meeting, the Board agreed to form a 16 FF Initiatives working party for the Every One Goes Home Initiative and the16 Fire Fighter Safety Initiatives. Board members suggested picking six of the initiatives that are important, looking up the initiatives and all the information needed. For more information about Everyone Goes home go to https://www.everyonegoeshome.com/.

At the February meeting, Irwin-Powell said he and Board Member Patrick Richardson agreed on six initiatives to pursue including cultural change, and accountability for what those around us are doing, risk management and understanding how risk assessment will be applied, empowerment to make change and training and certification. He recommended that a working party be formed to look at the six and see which they believe can be achieved this year. Board treasurer Todd Wiesler volunteered to be the board liaison.

Regarding expense reimbursement for Wildland deployment, they are working on a draft policy aiming to reimburse expenses as fast as they can and seek reimbursement for the labor component. The Board agreed to look at last year’s numbers and put a plan together that would protect the district. 

During Chief Dirr’s report, he said Ryan Roberts, who managed wildfire billing resigned this past Friday. Rik Henrickson has taken over that task. They are moving forward to advertise that position and working on finding temporary paramedic staff to provide backfill. 

The next meeting of the Nederland Fire District Board of Directors will be on March 3, 2021, at 7 p.m. For more information go to https://www.nfpd.org/.

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