John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Fire Protection District Board of Directors agreed to post a board vacancy for the District during a regular online meeting on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Chair Iain Irwin-Powell announced that Patrick Richardson is resigning from the Board. 

Richardson said his last Board meeting will be on June 16, and he will have a statement then. He received congratulations and good luck from the Board.

Irwin-Powell said they should advertise that they have a position open, and suggested the Board put together a longer term policy for the posting places and will discuss this with Fire Chief Rick Dirr. The selection should be a public session and a discussion with whoever applies.

Board Member Henry Zurbrugg said they should have a policy to appoint Board members. These steps outlined were correct and they hoped to get some responses. 

Irwin-Powell said three directors and interested parties could put this together, including what the director does. “Sometimes we forget we exist as a board,” he said. The Board agreed that Irwin-Powell will work on a policy and send it to the Board. 

During his report, Chief Dirr said another shift officer has resigned so the officer posting is back up. He has had a discussion with Fire Marshal Rik Henrikson on recruiting part time for the position. 

Fire Marshall Rik Henrikson also offered his resignation effective May 28, 2021. Henrikson wants to take some time off, and Dirr has someone who is interested to take the position. Last night, Henrikson was working on urban/wildland interface planning with the town Board, and he will be moving forward on that. 

Dirr said he has four new recruits who continue to show up and train. He is working on an EMS training group and working with AMR in Boulder on purchasing supplies that may be cheaper than those we are currently buying. 

Board Member Todd Wieseler said if they could add the names of the people on the monthly board call report, with a sheet for the members and their training, a document could be titled by the month. At the end of the year they could do a summary on how they are answering calls. 

Dirr said that’s why he wants to keep historic data: it will show you how many calls came in. He will ask that these changes be included in the monthly report. Rik Henrikson was working on this, and a new person who joined will work on this.

Irwin-Powell reported on an ongoing retaliation complaint. One of the contacts had a medical emergency that delayed the response and the Board awaits that response.

The Board discussed a quote last month for an employee policy handbook at $6400. Irwin-Powell obtained a comparative quote from the District’s attorney for a review of the current manual for approximately $1700 plus extra time for specific changes that would be required for the District’s operations.  The Board could do a boilerplate policy manual, but they would have to make so many changes that it would take significant internal effort to complete.

Last month the board asked the membership for some suggestions on how the additional funds the department received last year from members being deployed on fires should be spent. The suggestions that gained the most board support were radios specific to wildland deployment, and individual job shirts with names on.

They have submitted a grant to Boulder Community Foundation Preparedness for wildland radios and have an expectation it will be funded. 

After a year of Zoom meetings, the Board agreed that the next meeting will be a hybrid virtual and in-person meeting with the board meeting in person and the public session being a Zoom call-in. 

The next meeting of the Nederland Fire District Board of Directors will be on June 16, 2021, at 7 p.m. For more information go to https://www.nfpd.org/.

(Originally published in the May 27, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)