MINUTES

Board Meeting

March 12, 2008

 1.        Meeting was called to order at 0900 by Vice Chairperson L. Walker.

 2.        Report on Closed Session

            Nothing to report

 3.        Motion to approve February Meeting Minutes.

            Motion – V. Wiemeyer Second – F. Shepard                All in favor – Aye.

 4.        Presentation from CALFire

Captain Steve Fowler from CALFire made a presentation to the Board and Public on new construction requirements for Wildland/Urban Areas, including new requirements for fire safe construction materials and defensible space clearing.  He informed the Board that the construction laws went into effect on January 1, 2008 and the defensible space law was put into effect prior.  The documentation presented can be made available to our customers by contacting the office. 

 6.        Brandis Tallman

Jeff Land from Brandis Tallman reviewed documentation supplied to the CSD Board on the proposed refinancing of the Dynamite Hill 1996 Certificates of Participation.  Both the General Manager Frank Motzkus and Board Member Frank Shepard informed the rest of the Board that they had reviewed the loan documents and found no problem with the language.

In order to proceed, the Board needed to approve Resolution #2008-69, which approves the Loan Agreement.

Motion to approve Resolution  #2008-69.

Motion – F. Shepard                Second – V. Wiemeyer           

Roll call vote:

Aye – L. Walker, F. Shepard, R. Machado, V. Wiemeyer

Nay – None

Abstain – None

Absent – E. Tretten

 5.        Fire Chief’s Report – presented by Assistant Chief Tom Forster

Calls – the Department responded to a medical call at the Johnsville Ski Hill on February 17 for a possible broken wrist.  It turned out that the patient was the son of residents of Plumas Eureka Estates.  The question posed to the Board for direction is as follows:

• The Board passed an Ordinance in June 2007 to charge for responding personnel and equipment to calls outside the District.  This call falls into that category, however considering the fact that the patient’s address is within the District, do we charge for the call?

The members of the Board were polled for their feeling on this matter and the result is that it was the sense of the Board not to invoice for this call.

Personnel – no changes

Propane Tank – Sequoia Circle –

Assistant Chief Forster advised the Board that a letter had been received from the propane company outlining the timeframe for the repairs to be made to the tank and the tank area, most of which was March 1st, 2008.  The Chief had inspected the area and all but two items had been addressed.

The General Manager advised the Board that the CSD had sent a response to the propane company thanking them for their letter and also requesting the increase in liability insurance coverage and outlining the amount of the Fire Protection Fee.  To date there has been no response to this letter.  The General Manager said that if there was still no response by the end of the week, he would contact Robert Spaniel at the propane company.  The Vice Chair reminded the General Manager that the Board preferred the term ‘Land Use Fee’ rather than a ‘Fire Protection Fee’.  He said that he would remedy that in his next communication with the propane company.

Miscellaneous

The Assistant Chief informed the Board that Graeagle Fire has a new Fire Chief he is Ed Ward who has been with the Department for about thirty years.

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The Chief wanted to hear the Board’s feelings on selling engine 9121, placing 9178, (the Type 3) in its place and acquiring a command vehicle for the Chief.

Further, the Chief has spoken with Graeagle Fire and in case one of our engines goes down, they would provide a back up engine to use until repairs could be made on our equipment.

After discussion the Board requested the following:

• Get it in writing that Graeagle would provide back up equipment.
• Search the area for departments that would be interested in purchasing engine 9121.

The purchase of a used SUV as a Command Vehicle will be addressed in the Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Budget presentation at the April Board Meeting.

 7.        Johnsville Ski Hill Memorandum of Understanding

The General Manager, at the February Meeting informed the Board that the CSD had been approached by John Sheehan, one of the Ski Hill Group participants to join their Group by signing a Memorandum of Understanding.  In the time since that meeting, the Board has been supplied with a copy of the MOU for review purposes.

Discussion and Conclusion – this is a voluntary obligation, no monies are involved just ‘person participation’ in some of their projects.  They asked for a name of a main contact representative and an alternate.  That will be Frank Motzkus as the main contact and Vern Wiemeyer as the alternate.

It was the sense of the Board to become a signatory on the MOU.  Upon his return, the Board Chair will sign the MOU.

 8.        Fire Hydrants and the Fire Corps

The Board discussed approaching property owners about aiding the CSD staff by helping to clear snow from around fire hydrants in times of heavy or repetitive snow storms.  The CSD staff and Fire Department are very much in favor of this idea and an article on the subject will appear in the spring issue of the newsletter.

 9.        Expenditure Request

            No requests at this time.

10.       Goals and Objectives

R. Machado reports that Bob Arieta, who is back from Iraq (for how long we don’t know) went shopping with Goodie Box funds and sent an additional $600 worth of goodies over to his replacement unit in Iraq last month.  He is going to submit a thank you article for the upcoming newsletter.

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At the April Board Meeting, a date will be set for the next Goals Brainstorming Session in May.

11.       Standing Committee Reports

Personnel – the General Manager reported that Gary “Shane” Frazier challenged the GED test and passed with flying colors.  He is now officially an Operator in Training.

There will be a Closed Session at the April Meeting so that the entire Board can hear the results of the Performance Review of the General Manager that was conducted by the Personnel Committee last month.

Safety – nothing to report

Insurance – nothing to report

12.       General Manager’s Report

The Board reviewed the February Financial Reports and had some questions on some of the figures and percentages.

• Overtime – besides snow removal, there was a water line broken by a contractor working at a house on North Pinion Pine Circle, it happened in the late afternoon and took several hours to repair.  The contractor has been invoiced for the repair costs.
• Fuel – obviously, the increase in fuel costs

Motion to approve the February Financial Reports.

Motion – F. Shepard                Second – R. Machado              All in favor – Aye.

Plumas Sierra Rural Electric Co-operative

The Board’s attention was referred to two drawings taped to the wall.  They showed the route of an electric line replacement project that REC is undertaking starting at the beginning of West Ponderosa Drive and running part way up Lundy Lane.  This will also affect Aspen Circle, Meadow Lane and Pine Cone Court.  The project will bid shortly and we will be advised of the start date shortly thereafter.  The General Manager informed the Board that the original wire had been ‘direct burial’, but the new wire shall be placed in conduit to improve service.

P E G G

This is the new name for our Ground Water Management team.  It stands for Plumas Eureka Groundwater Group.   The name was chosen by the members of the group at our recent meeting.  We will be contacting the Integrated Rural Water group at the State level for some additional information and possible aid for our research. 

We expect to hear some information on our application for the AB 303 Grant in April.

Miscellaneous

• The General Manager informed the Board that we had received the Annual Report from CALPers.  We must notify them if we wish to continue to receive this document.  The sense of the Board is no thank you.
• The Board was informed that Lewis Prince is in Kansas attending an Aero-Mod Operations Class.  All travel, education, meals and lodging costs have been borne by Aero-Mod.  We will most likely send Shane our Operator in Training to the next class in the Fall.
• There will be a Sanitary Sewer Management Meeting with Shaw Engineering on March 20th.  At that time a schedule and plan will be ready for adoption at the April Meeting.
• LAFCo – at their recent meeting, a Resolution was passed paving the way for the MSR (Municipal Service Review) & SOI (Sphere of Influence) studies.  At the next CSD Board Meeting, we will get our Board’s approval for the studies and appropriate the funds.
• L. Walker asked about the status of the General Manager’s consultation contract with Gold Mountain CSD.  There is a meeting later this same week and it will be discussed then, so he will update the Board at the April Board Meeting.

14.       Written Correspondence to the Board

            This item was covered in items 5 & 6 and there is nothing additional.

15.       Opportunity for the Public to address the Board

            There were no members of the public present.

16.       Motion to adjourn

            Motion – F. Shepard                Second – R. Machado              All in favor – Aye.

Meeting adjourned at 1142 hours.

In attendance:   L. Walker, V. Wiemeyer, F. Shepard, R. Machado

Absent: E. Tretten

                                                                                                Respectfully submitted,

                                                                        TERESA l. CUNNINGHAM    

                                                                                                Teresa L. Cunningham

                                                                                                Clerk to the PECSD Board