Garden City Fire Board

Chris S. Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

GARDEN CITY, Utah.  January 16, 2014.  The Garden City Fire District had its regular monthly meeting on January 16, 2014.  Present were Brian House, Christina Gracey, Perry Wakefield, and Randall Knight.   Howard Pope was absent.  Tom Weston, county commissioner, who was appointed to the board in December by a formal vote of the county commissioners, indicated that he would not serve and would be removed by the commission at its next meeting as they have found that there doesn’t need to be an elected official on the board.

Perry Wakefield was voted as new chair, Randall Knight as new secretary.  Tiffany Wahlberg asked board members to more clearly indicate their votes as some were not distinct.  Christina Gracey asked that her vote for acceptance of Randall Knight as a board member for a new term had been incorrectly recorded and that her vote should be recorded as an abstention.

The board reviewed the annual audit procedures and chose Tiffany Wahlberg to do the financial statements and the firm of Woods-Richards to do the “Agreed Upon Procedures”. The annual cost for the financial statement is in the range of $1,000.

Chief Wahlberg wants to form a technical rescue squad of approximately 8 persons.  He also noted that the number of firefighters has grown from 17 to 26, which means that the personal protective gear owned by the department is right at the edge of the number of firefighters.  Some of the new firefighters are not yet certified at the appropriate level but training is under way to bring them up to operational readiness with formal testing to follow.

There will be some remodel of the fire station, including minor reframing, tile, and carpet work.   Chief Wahlberg said that in an emergency the station had backup power available and could serve as an Emergency Operations Center for the county on a short term basis.  The chief also wants to get two HAZMAT technicians trained in Rich County (not just operations, but formal technicians).  He expressed the hope that one would come from the south end of the county.