Planning for the future: The Timberline Board of Directors plan a work session to refresh the district’s policies which have not been updated since 2017.[/caption]

At approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, Timberline Fire Protection District (TFPD) held their monthly board meeting at Station 3, located at 19126 Highway 119, Black Hawk.

President Rick Wenzel, Vice President John Bushey, and Members at Large Mary Kate McKenna, Kristin Turner, and John Carder attended the meeting, as well as Fire Chief Paul Ondr and Administrative Chief Jennifer Hinderman. Highlights of the meeting included planning a work session and the Chief’s Report.

The Weekly Register Call recently named Ondr the Citizen of the Year and the board congratulated him.

When discussing the Treasurer’s Report for December’s unaudited financials, Hinderman explained that December has some of January’s numbers which skews the calculations slightly. The department is under budget.

New business included District Financial Reserves and Ondr proposed working through the information during a future work session.

Carder suggested using percentages of spending in the budget instead of dollar amounts because of inflation.

Ondr mentioned that the fee schedule is outdated and suggested that the fees could be discussed at the next meeting. The board agreed. A public hearing to adopt the updated fees will be held at the next meeting on April 16.

Hinderman suggested waiting to discuss the District Financial Reserves until August in order to have more knowledge about their resources.

A work session will be held on April 10 at 12:30 p.m. to discuss District policies.

The Chief’s Report for January is as follows:

Operations

• We responded to 46 calls in January.

• Dispatch went live with the new CAD system on the 14th. So far on only a few small issues for TFPD. Looking forward to working through CAD/ESO integration.

• Tender 57 is home and back in service. I did break down 150 miles from Rosenbauer and was at an International dealer in IA for 10 days. Breakdown was caused by a fuel injection pressure regulator. RR Arbogash flew out and drove it home after the repairs.

• Captain Watson’s maintenance truck is in the body shop, it should be back in about two more weeks. We were reimbursed for the deductible because the other driver was at fault.

• We have filled the two Shift Firefighter positions. We are excited to add Tyler Ross and Alex Hinojosa to the staff.

• I was able to find a suitable Bronco on a lot in Colorado Springs, purchasing this one kept us from dealing with the 4-6 month order process. Currently in the process of radio and light installation. The project will come in at or under the budgeted amount.

• Making this purchase now allows Captain Watson to use a Durango while his truck is in the shop.

Wildland/Mitigation

• We have received all reimbursements for 2023 deployments.

• Pile burning with USFS for TFPD is complete. USFS is still cleaning up a few piles.

• TFPD burned 19 days, 11 of those days the UTV was used. See the attached spreadsheet for pile and acre totals.

• Gilpin CWPP kick-off meeting was February 8.

• Thursday, February 22, we are hosting the first Gilpin Wildfire Council meeting at Station 3.

• We received an AIM (Action, Implementation, and Mitigation) grant for our Mitigation Coordinator position. This grant is for 50% of the position cost for one year. The period of performance is roughly March 2024-March 2025.

• We have a lot of mitigation work planned for this year: Porter Ranch, Corona Heights, Pinecliffe Association, Gilpin Rec Center, Dakota Tower, and 5 community chipping events. Other projects are still in development.

Administration

• We were awarded a Historical Preservation grant for the Observatory roof replacement. The roofing consultant should be putting this out to bid soon. I will attempt to line up anything that needs approval with our regularly scheduled meetings. Captain Bosworth will be helping manage this project as well.

• DFPC Firefighter Safety and Disease Grant was submitted, I asked for two Thermal imaging cameras totaling $13,000 with a zero match.

• FEMA AFG Grant: Another fire alarm system grant is complete, the request is for $35,000 with a 5% match. We completed a fire alarm project last year at Station 7 and some repairs at Station 3 with the original grant. We are looking to replace the alarm system at Station 5 with the new grant.

• Training and Recruitment Coordinator position has been filled. Lt. Schneider has accepted the position and will be working part time with Chief Bondus until his last day on March 15. Lt. Schneider will start full time sometime in April.

• Software changeover from Emergency Reporting (ER)/Vector to ESO has been slow, but we have progressed. Report writing is working well. Training and Certification working. I hope to have properties and inspections ready by March 8.

• We canceled and were refunded for the scheduling portion of ESO as it was not going to work for Timberline. We have developed an interim plan and will revisit scheduling later in the year.

• We have begun an ISO reevaluation; the training portion was completed first because I wanted to make sure this was done while Chief Bondus was still here. We saw improvement over the previous audit and have identified some areas for future improvement, mostly in documentation. The results of this audit helped to improve the buildout of ESO’s training tracker and will allow us to maintain better records going forward.

• I am meeting with our ISO evaluator this week to work on the next steps.

Training

• February’s monthly training was size-ups and first-due action planning, focus was on good communication and accurate reporting of conditions to dispatch/incoming resources. Also discussed mutual and auto-aid partners’ capabilities and agreements.

• All Timberline members renewing their EMT in March attended NR-EMT skills session hosted by Timberline/ UC Health/Gilpin Ambulance and have received their required skills signoffs. Skills sign offs will now be an annual requirement for all TFPD members holding an EMS certification. Thanks to Capt. Putnam at GAA for assisting with this.

• We hosted a region-wide GIS mapping training with Gilpin County this past Saturday. Thanks to Lt. Colgan and crew for coordinating day-off needs.

• March training is focused on winter driving and winch/recovery. Thanks to Lt. Femmer and Captain Bosworth for creating and teaching this class.

• March 9 is ice rescue. Board members are encouraged to attend and get in the water to role-play as victims. Thanks to Johnny May for instructing again this year and to Snowline Lake HOA for allowing us to use the lake again. And thanks to HCA for providing us lunch.

R&R

• New member interviews continue through the end of next week. Looking at a likely recruit class size of five to seven with onboarding planned late March/early-April.

• New recruitment signs were purchased (using grant advertising dollars) and will be installed at stations late February/early March.

• We will be heading to Aims Community College in Windsor in late March as part of their regional fire/EMS career day recruitment event.

The meeting concluded at approximately 6:40 p.m.

The next regular Board Meeting for Timberline Fire Protection District will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 11, 2024, at Station 3, located at 19126 Highway 119, Black Hawk, Colorado, 80422.