By Jon Huang
June FFPD board meeting
The Falcon Fire Protection District held its monthly board meeting June 19 at the Falcon Fire Administration Building on 7030 Old Meridian Road. Joan Fritsche, attorney; Tom Kerby, assistant secretary; Ray Hawkins, treasurer; James Reid, president; Dan Kupferer, vice president (attended remotely); Steve Podoll, secretary; Trent Harwig, chief, attended.
May minutes were unanimously approved.
Public comment
Chaplain Michael Collins reported that Mike Ayers, former Falcon firefighter, recently died. His father, Dick Ayers, was a former board member and staunch supporter of the department. No funeral plans are known at this time.
Other correspondence
Chief Harwig reported that the auditor’s letter had been received and that the auditor would be at next month’s meeting to do a formal presentation. He was also contacted by a real estate agent about the remaining 1 acre of undeveloped land that will remain once the maintenance building is complete. The board plans to look into a future land swap that will allow the department to acquire a large enough piece of land that would serve as a site to build a future fire department training academy.
Treasurer’s report
Harwig presented the numbers through May 2024, with 41.7% of the fiscal year complete.
The department has received 64% of the budgeted general fund revenue. He also reviewed total backfills received from Senate Bills 238 and 001. Overall, the department received about $576,477 and $747,971, respectively, which is more than what was budgeted from the last year. However, none of the bills will provide backfill next year; therefore, they are not permanent fixes to the shortfall from property tax revenues resulting from recent legislation. The general fund was at 43% of expected expenditures due to transfers to other funds and should be back on budget next month.
Ambulance transport fees were at 43% of expected fees. The total Ambulance Transport Fund was at 48% of expected revenues. Total expenditures on the Ambulance Fund are at 38% of expected revenues.
The Capital Project fund has received 50% of expected revenues. Expenditures were at 10%. The Rural Water Fund had no new activity.
The report was passed unanimously without discussion.
Staff report
Deputy Chief Jeff Petersma presented the Operations Report through April 2024.
There were 331 calls for service fielded in April, which is up 80 from this time last year. Year-to-date through April showed a total of 1,338 calls, with 1,078 of those belonging to the department. The monthly average response time remained stable. The average response time from April 2023 to March 2024 was 8 minutes and 53 seconds. The target for districts one, three and four is six minutes, but because of the geographical distance, districts three and four did not meet them. Ambulance aid received and given reports were reviewed without significant outliers. There were no reserve hours for the month of April.
Chief Jon Webb presented the EMS report. For May, there were 129 transports but accurate billing numbers were not available because the department’s billing company was recently bought out by another company; and, despite reaching out to them multiple times prior to the meeting, he had not yet received the updated numbers.
Twenty-four month statistics show a cash per trip of $604.09 without Medicaid supplement and $758.21 cash per trip with supplement.
Lt. Curtis Kauffman presented fire prevention. Through 17 days in May, there were six building inspections, four follow-up inspections, two new projects and eight EDARPs (Electronic Development Application Review Program). The department is still on hold from the state regarding updated fire codes.
Maintenance building project
Harwig reported that the maintenance permit has not been pulled yet but is expected next Monday or Tuesday. Groundwork to dig for the foundation is expected to start next week.
Kerby requested that Hammers update their schedule before the next meeting because of ongoing concerns over whether they will be finished before winter weather. Harwig presented the revised payment request No. 2 for $217,058.60. Kerby proposed that this would not be paid until permit approval, and the board unanimously approved this.
Sheriff’s Office substation update
Kerby reported that the site plans had been approved by the county and they were ready to start building. The board has reviewed the site plans and approved them. They are, however, still missing easements and agreements related to the parking lot designations and the work on the stormwater drain and water pipe system, which will require access to Falcon Fire Department property. They will follow up with the county about completing the necessary paperwork.
Annual cybersecurity update for FFPD
Harwig mentioned that per their liability insurance’s yearly requirement, the department will update the board on their current situation through a presentation given by Simpleworks, their current cybersecurity provider. Stephen Smith, the company’s virtual chief information officer, presented an update to the board.
According to Smith, the department is doing very well, scoring “A” ratings in all 10 categories in which they were evaluated. Key projects this past year included creating workstation backups of Quickbooks and finance data. Email hardening was put in place, which is a control that ensures district emails are being received based on verification that the sending source is legitimate and makes it difficult for someone to set up an email pretending to be the district. They also deployed password vaults for administrative staff, which provides tooling to manage complex, unique passwords.
Reid asked how emergency response would be affected if the district’s system went down, and Petersma explained it wouldn’t because dispatch is conducted through the county. Reid asked about the reasoning behind the recommendation of replacing computer hardware every five to seven years. Smith explained that this is based on the concept of a bathtub curve, which conveys that electronic equipment tends to fail early due to manufacturers defect and later due to wear, and is therefore geared toward replacing items before the latter occurs. Reid also asked where the data is backed up and Smith reported it is done independently on two separate cloud-based services, including Microsoft 365 and another third-party vendor, which would be recoverable within a 24-hour period should loss of data occur.
After the presentation, Petersma informed the board that out of all the other fire departments evaluated, Falcon far exceeded their counterparts.
FFPD board meetings are usually held the third Wednesday of each month at 3 p.m. in the meeting room at Falcon Fire Administration, 7030 Old Meridian Road.
Stay connected with the Falcon Fire Protection District
Website: http://www.falconfirepd.org
Facebook: Falcon Fire Department
Twitter: @FalconFireDept
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