On April 22, the Owen-Withee Curtiss Fire & EMS Building Committee met before the regular quarterly meeting of the Fire District.
Fire Chief Travis Serocki reported the plan has been submitted for Congressional spending and has been accepted. They will know if the project will be funded and how much will be funded by sometime this summer.
Committee member Jason Thornton said Chad from CBS Squared had met with local legislators who had no idea of the rules for the Innovation Grant. The fire district is not eligible for this grant.
Serocki said that Tammy Baldwin’s staff were impressed by how far along the project is. Thornton said that Chad had treated it like a bid opening and brought everything done so far. Serocki said that historically, Clark County has not received any Congressional spending funding. They are hoping to get at least $2.5 million of the $4.2 million they asked for. They will have two years to complete the project if funding is awarded.
If the Clark County Sheriff’s Department does decide to participate in the project, decisions will have to be made on ownership of the building and who pays for what. Thornton said he had brought it up at the Law Enforcement Committee but they want to wait to make a decision to see if the funding moves forward. At that point, they would like to have a joint meeting with the fire district. Serocki said if the project is funded at 100 percent, he felt that the Sheriff’s Department could just pay their share of the utilities and not have to pay rent for the space.
The committee won’t meet again until they hear from Baldwin’s office on funding.
The Fire & EMS District then held their meeting. The duty roster was approved. It was voted to keep the officers of the board the same as the previous year.
The Building Committee reported on their progress. Chad from CBS Squared was also present. He said they will know by July if they make the cut and should know by November how much funding they will get. Baldwin’s rep said that projects who apply are usually funded. They are far into the process and told Baldwin’s rep they just needed funding to make the new fire station a reality. Chad also said he will be leaving CBS Squared and introduced Dave, who will be taking over for him on this project.
Serocki said USDA funding can be applied for as a match if the project isn’t fully funded. Chad also said they need to change the district bylaws giving them the ability to acquire loans or each township would have to sign an agreement saying they are willing to be liable when the district borrows money. He said if federally funded, the project will be a white sheet job so it will cost a little more.
Serocki then reported on promotions within the department. He also talked about the number of calls so far this year. Board member Art Petke said it would be useful to have that report to give to municipalities at annual meeting time to show what the district actually does. Serocki said they have new software and he has been thinking about doing an annual run report. Board member Mark Nosko said he takes the reports to his township meetings. Grace Dale said she is sending monthly reports to the Enterprise Sentinel for publication.
Serocki said they received a DNR grant. He also talked about some maintenance issues and equipment testing that has either been completed or will be completed soon.
For EMS, it is time to replace an ambulance. They will be looking at a demo model on April 29. The demo is diesel, they could have it by the end of May and it would cost $309,000. If they ordered an ambulance, it will be at least a year and a half before they would get it and the cost would be around $360,000 for the ambulance and additional needed equipment. Bob Wilczek reported that the demo is a 2025 model with about 15,000 miles on it. It will have a truck chassis giving it a longer life and more resale value. They would have to add a brush guard and load assist. Dale said there is some money available for a downpayment. Ambulance funds should be able to pay off any money borrowed. The board voted to let the committee that has been looking into this make the final decision on what they feel is best after looking at the demo.
Serocki said he now has to report population numbers from the clerks on his reports.
They looked over the financials from fire and EMS and accepted them as presented.
Withee’s representative can’t make Wednesday meetings, so future meetings will be moved to Thursday afternoons with the next meeting set for July 23 at 1 p.m.