Mindy Leary, Gilpin County. At 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, Timberline Fire District held their monthly board meeting online and via phone dial-in. In attendance were President Rick Wenzel, Treasurer Whitney Donoghue and Members-at-Large Chip Smith, Jeff Fisher and John Bushey. Others present included Fire Chief Paul Ondr and Secretary Jennifer Hinderman. Highlights included an exclusion fee resolution and a radio update. 

A motion was made to accept the minutes of October 13; it passed unanimously. 

The October 2020 Draft Financials was missing the expenditure report but will be remedied. 

New business included a resolution adopting fees and procedures for exclusions of property, which Ondr elaborated on. Upon the filing of a petition for exclusion of property, a deposit in the amount of $2,500 shall be paid for each parcel of property proposed for exclusion. 

The exclusion fees shall be used to offset costs of processing the exclusion petition, but the board reserves the right to modify or refund the fee. The board adjudicated that any unused fees could be refunded after 90 days. The resolution was approved as amended with all in favor.

The audit contract for 2020 was approved with all in favor.

Old business included the Disaster Declaration: Resolution to Continue, relative to Covid-19. All were in agreement to continue.

Ondr presented the radio update, including his own positive Covid diagnosis which recently prompted multiple quarantines of district/response members. 

“We decreased the amount of people on shift to four people. We lock downed Station 7. We’ve encouraged people to take multiple, separate vehicles. We had 20 people test yesterday, Timberline responders and family members, and believe we have five positive. We caught things pretty quickly, but we are trying to reduce the exposure. We canceled all in-person everything,” said Ondr between slight coughs. 

He reported that PPE is still in good supply. There is still a Stage 2 Fire ban; Ondr wishes to stay status quo with the forest service so as to stay in sync with various counties in the district. 

Ondr reported that the year in review will happen as a virtual event on December 8 to evaluate performance and appreciate the district team.

All of the radios and accessories have been delivered and programming will be completed upon approval, tentatively November 30.   

When asked about the recent Cameron and Troublesome Fires, Ondr humorously replied, “To be honest with you, I haven’t really followed them either. Unfortunately, we went straight from every things on fire to everyone has Covid.” He continued, “Cameron Peak is 92% contained as of five hours ago and there are still 371 personnel assigned to it.”

The board decided to meet in 2021 at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. monthly.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

A budget workshop will be held December 7, 2020, at 5 p.m. virtually. 

The next regular board meeting for Timberline Fire Protection District will be publicly held Monday, December 14, 2020, at 5 p.m. and can be accessed via their website.

(Originally published in the November 26, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)