Garden City Fire Board

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

GARDEN CITY,  Utah.  November 16, 2017. Brian House, Fire Board, called the meeting to order and turned the time over to Chief Wahlberg to discuss the building expansion that is to be made to the current firehouse building.  Wahlberg said he is in the process of drawing up some ideas to determine the size of the addition, the appearance on the front of the addition, and about how much materials will cost for this addition.  He estimates that it will cost between $90,000 and $120,000 for materials, contractors, and labor.

The extra bay that will be added to the building will be an open one so that vehicles can drive right through if needed.  He would like to add new doors to all of the existing bays so that they match which will certainly enhance the look of the building.  The second floor will put the height of the building up to 32’.  He said he would make up the floor plan and elevations in order to price out the building when putting it out to bid.

The 2018 budget was discussed.  Health insurance is, of course, going up like it has been in all companies.  It was determined that it will need to be at least 20% to 25% higher than last year

Property taxes will probably go up as well because the County will begin re-evaluation of properties during 2018.

The Fire Board has been discussing the need for impact fees.  After a brief discussion, the Board decided that they would need to get an engineer to come in and discuss what steps the Board would need to take in order to justify an impact fee or if an impact fee would not be the best direction to take.

The Board asked Chief Wahlberg to keep a record of all of his callouts from now on and go back through his files for callouts in the past.  This data will be very helpful in order to determine if impact fees would be needed.

All of the fire equipment is up and ready to go.  There were no requisitions for this past month.

There were 11 responses this past month:  3 carbon dioxide calls, 4 fire alarms, 3 medical calls, and 2 small structure fires in Buttercup.

Chief Wahlberg noted that he has done many short-term rental inspections.  It takes time, but it is necessary to keep homes as the City requires.

It was announced that the new ambulance for Garden City won’t become available until the first part of 2018.