Fire Committee Minutes 11-18-2021

Fire Committee Minutes 11-18-2021

RUTLAND TOWN SELECTBOARD COMMITTEE MEETING

FIRE COMMITTEE

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 18^th, 2021

The Fire Committee of the Rutland Town Selectboard met at 3:45 PM on Thursday November 18^th, 2021, at the Rutland Town Municipal Town Hall. Present was Board Chair Mary Ashcroft, Board Member John Paul Faignant, Board member Don Chioffi, Town Fire Chief Chris Clark, Town Assistant Fire Chief Mike Carlson, Town Assistant Fire Chief Larry Dell Veneri, and Administrative Assistant Bill Sweet. There was a conference call line with a publicly accessible and warned phone number in use.

• The committee reviewed the proposed draft Fire Budget presented by Chief Clark. There were very few adjustments from last years budget.
• Discussed the responses to daytime calls. Of the 32 members, only a handful can respond to calls for a variety of reasons, from the worry of losing pay for the time they are gone from their primary employment to their employer not allowing them to leave to respond to calls.
  1. Discussed adding a separate line item to fund an hourly rate for members who respond to calls during regular work hours. The rate of pay would be equal to the Highway Crew rate.
  2. Some line items were adjusted down to offset the addition of this new expense.
  3. Initially $3000 will be allocated to this effort.
  4. A review of calls will be done to see the approximate impact.
  5. The goal is to increase daytime, weekday responses to calls. The target time is 7AM to 4PM.
  6. The payout for this special allocation would be done monthly.
• The total draft budget is $220,957 which is a 3.07% increase over last year.
• Discussed sending letters to employers that allow their employees to leave thanking them for allowing our members to respond. Also, providing letters to members from the Selectboard to give to their employer to encourage them to allow members to respond if they do not currently.

The meeting adjourned at 4:10 PM

Respectfully submitted, Bill Sweet