Garden City Fire Board Members Begin & Church Capacity Discussed

Anita Weston, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. January 25, 2018.  Randall Knight presided over the meeting.  Special thanks were given to Brian House for his years of good service as a member of the Fire Board.  Laura Cluff, the new board member, was asked to serve on the board by the past Mayor, John Spuhler, and the new Mayor, Mike Leonhardt.  The board members voted to accept Laura Cluff as the new board member. 

Howard Pope and Randall Knight were both accepted as board members to serve another term on the Fire Board.

Knight suggested to Cluff that she read through the updated manual that the Board has written.  There is a lot of information contained in this manual that will be helpful in making good decisions.  Cluff will need to pass a test on the manual, so getting well acquainted with it will help in taking care of this requirement.  There is a training plan that all board members need to take each year to be certified.  It was suggested that Cluff do the computer test that first time around.  It contains five different modules, and a certain grade needs to be obtained.  After the first year, Garden City sponsors a review each year and invites anyone serving on any boards for the City to attend and bring themselves up to speed about meeting rules and regulations.

The Fire Department Plan was to be discussed.  However, Knight asked that this item be on next month’s agenda.  Board members were asked to see if any changes and/or decisions need to be taken care of to make sure this plan is current and moving in the right direction.

Knight noted that Mitch Poulsen, Bear River Regional Commission, has a nice map for all the trails and roads in the county and surrounding areas.  He asked if Poulsen could also put the boundaries on the map showing the area covered by the Garden City First District.  He said he would be happy to do that.

Knight noted that the Garden City First District has an agreement with the County and with Laketown that makes it possible for Garden City to respond to calls in these two areas.  Chief Wahlberg noted that the Garden City Fire District can go into Idaho when they need help.  This agreement is different because neither the County and the other cities in the County can go into the Idaho area at all.  This is possible because Garden City has a different attorney, has their own insurance, and they have signed an agreement with Bear Lake County. 

Garden City doesn’t respond to calls from Cache County unless the fire chief in Logan requests that our fire people respond to problems that are closer to Garden City than Logan City.

The Garden City Fire Chief’s personal/vacation time can carryover until he has accumulated 400 hours.  The hours and time carryover must be documented at the end of each year.  The fire chief can accumulate a certain number of days each month as well as add 11 vacation/holiday days and overtime.  This year only 9 hours can be carried over which puts Chief Wahlberg at the 400-maximum number of hours accumulated.  Tiffany Walberg, CPA, keeps track of all this information for the Board and the Fire Chief.  It was also noted that when the Fire Chief is not available, the Captains have the responsibility to carry on and take care of any problems that may occur.

There were no vehicle/equipment/station service requests this month.  There was one purchase request for turn out fire gloves.  There are two volunteers currently in training that have very large hands, and none of the gloves available will fit.  The Chief will get the gloves for these individuals.

Everything in the equipment area are up and running.

There were 16 responses this month:  2 carbon dioxide poison calls, 4 carbon dioxide alarm calls, 3 fire alarms, 6 medical assists, and 1 vehicle rollover.

Mayor Leonhardt asked the Fire Chief to make sure that the Church occupancy maximum is not exceeded.  Chief Wahlberg noted that he will not do that.  He will be glad to check the building and determine the maximum capacity of the building.  He felt that the Bishops of the two wards need to investigate this matter and come up with some type of solution to make sure the building is not exceeding the capacity limit.  The Fire Chief would also be happy to write a letter than can be sent to all short-term rentals and summer people to inform them of whatever decisions the Bishop will make.

Five of the firemen in Garden City attended a training school in St. George.  It was a good opportunity to learn about arson investigations and advance arson investigations, advanced extrication, drone usage at fires, legalities of drones, and how effective drones can be at a fire.

It was noted that up to six people can go at a time.  Preference is usually given to those fire  fighters who have worked for the fire station for over a year.  Currently there are 24 volunteer fire fighters.  There are nine who have been trained as fire fighters 1. and the rest are certified as fire fighters 2.  To be a fire fighter 2 takes an additional 24 hours of training.