With three out of five board members present, the Peyton Fire Protection District Board of Directors met Aug. 9. Sharon Brown will be the interim fire chief until a permanent chief is chosen.William Beary, board secretary, said the job posting for the fire chief closed Aug. 26. The board outlined the hiring process: applicants will interview before a panel that includes board members Patrick Palacol and James Fraas; one officer and two firefighters. The panel will make recommendations to the board for a fire chief and two alternates.Brown nominated firefighter Robert Nordeman for the position of interim lieutenant, and the board approved.In other business:Unserviceable vehiclesThe district has two vehicles that are out of commission and in need of repair; however, the cost to do so would be a huge financial investment. The board voted to declare one truck a surplus and sell it as salvage. The other vehicle, an old ambulance, was also voted as surplus, and suggestions were made to sell it and use the revenue to purchase a thermal imaging camera or donate it to another district willing to pick up the overhaul costs. The issue was tabled for a future board meeting. Computer equipmentThe board discussed options for upgrading the current computer system to a cloud service or a server system. Nordeman, the in-house IT expert, said the cloud service is reliant on the Internet. In Peyton, Internet service works moderately at best. Nordeman said remote access through a server system would be more feasible. “Compared to a cloud service, all functionality on a server system would be accessible internally if the Internet access went out,” Nordeman said. On a cloud server, if the Internet is down, no one can access in-house information from off-site locations. Setting up a successful server system requires an in-house person to manage it, Nordeman said. The upfront cost would be more, but over the long run it would be cheaper, he said.Possible revenue sourceCapt. Mike Deckard presented information about the Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant. Applications will be accepted from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15. This is the last year the grant will be offered, Deckard said. He offered to help with the grant application.September board meeting rescheduledThe September board meeting will be held Sept. 6.
