Minutes Board of Directors Meeting 10/15/03

The General Board Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President Mr. Stonebraker. Present were Directors Mr. Stonebraker, Mr. Schloss, Mr. Bettag, Chief Svetanics, Mrs. Vincent, Firefighters Pvt. Robert Firtos and Pvt. Steve Atherton, and Mr. Oscar Hartmann.

Pledge of allegiance was led by Pvt. Atherton.

Mr. Stonebraker made a motion to accept the agenda, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Motion by Mr. Bettag to accept the minutes from the closed executive sessions of September 5, 2003, September 9, 2003, and September 24, 2003, and the minutes from the general board meetings of September 17, 2003, and September 22, 2003, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Mr. Bettag gave the treasurer’s report for the month ending September 30, 2003. Mr. Bettag stated that at the present time we overspent in the general overhead on items such as the settlements of retired Chief Williams’s and William Ross, and in the remodeling of the firehouse earlier this year, all of which were expensive.

Mr. Stonebraker stated that the remodeling work done on the firehouse was expensive but had been planned, and the expenses spent on repair of the building and equipment have been extensive and unexpected.

Chief Svetanics stated that the ambulance maintenance is getting more frequent and that sooner or later we will have to replace it because we are getting eaten up with repairs. We are also having expensive building repairs. The building is over ten years old now and mechanical systems are starting to fail. Most of the problems are because there has never been any maintenance done on any of the systems in the building. The air conditioners we had to replace were never maintained over the years. The same with the roof, plumbing and electric. Our garage doors need replacement parts and the repairs are quite expensive because they are so worn and never maintained. Simple preventive maintenance would have prolonged the life of some of these systems and cut down on costly repairs. We will be looking into getting the furnace serviced as it, too, has never been maintained.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to accept the treasurer’s report, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Chief’s Report: Chief Svetanics reported that the Free Smoke Detector Program is a huge success with the District and we had already installed over 150 alarms and countless batteries were replaced. We will be continuing to install the alarms for our residents until we are hampered by cold weather. We purchased most of the alarms with money collected from business in our District and we received donations of 9 cases of detectors from the I.A.F.F. and a case of batteries from Laclede Gas Company.

Chief Svetanics announced that we have a visitor from the District who was a volunteer from the Dewey Heights Fire Department, Mr. Oscar C. Hartmann. Mr. Hartmann brought with him his award for placing 1st in the 1979-2003 Athlete of the Quarter Century for the 85 to 89 year age group. The Board commended Mr. Hartmann for his achievements and he showed his award to all present.

Chief Svetanics reported that Public Relations Officer Ron Harder received a grant to attend a class on Public Relations at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland and that Lieutenant David Foote also received a grant to attend the National Fire Academy for its Executive Fire Officer Program. The Board commended both men for their achievements.

Monthly reports presented on training by each crew member, 40 hour education schedule for training, maintenance report, fire incident report and summary, ambulance statistics, Gateway monthly credit report, overtime report, public relations report, minutes from South County Fire Alarm Association, and St. Louis Metro Fire District Alliance Minutes.

Chief Svetanics stated that he commends Captain Bertelsmeier for his report on business inspections and that it was a big job. Chief Svetanics also stated that we have cut back on any and all overtime and education expenses until we can get a handle on the budget and that we should be okay by the end of the fiscal year.

Mr. Stonebraker stated the Board commends and recognizes the great job Captain Schuessel did on the maintenance report. Mr. Stonebraker asked the question if 8 fires a month were a low or high amount of fires for the District. Chief Svetanics reported that it was a high count, but that there were more vacant building fires with kids setting up camp in unoccupied houses and it is unknown if these are accidental or intentional.

Mr. Stonebraker reported that our ambulance fees are way down as reported by Gateway, mainly because the insurance companies and Medicare are turning down more claims than before.

Mr. Stonebraker reported that the Public Relations Report focused on car seat installations, which is a great service that benefits our community, and asked the firefighters present about installations. They reported that it takes two men to install some seats to get them tightened down right and that new cars have hooks specifically made to hook seats up to, but that every make and model is different.

Mr. Stonebraker stated that Lemay is hosting the monthly meeting and dinner of the St. Louis Metro Fire District Alliance at Cusanelli’s Restaurant on Monday, October 20, 2003 at 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Stonebraker reported that Ameristar Casino has offered free dinner and drink tickets to off-duty firefighters for a date yet to be announced.

Question posed by Citizen: Mr. Hartmann reported that he attended a run held at Jefferson Barracks at which about 100 schools attended and lasted a few days. Mr. Hartmann asked why our ambulance and paramedics were not on the scene, since he knew they had been requested. Mr. Schloss answered that he worked on that specific run and that we had offered them off-duty paramedics to man the 2nd ambulance for $250 for 4 hours. They declined, since we could not take our in-service ambulance out of service for that amount of time due to the needs of our community and our off-duty paramedics needed to be paid for their services. Mr. Schloss stated that the only reason they did not accept this offer was that they were already committed to paying a doctor and 2 trainers, which they had previously scheduled for this occasion. Next year they will opt for a doctor and 2 paramedics instead. Mr. Stonebraker stated that the Board decided that in the future, any requests for ambulance personnel will have to be compensated, including for picnics, runs, school functions, etc., as they all have been paying St. Louis County Police Officers for the time they put in for years. The District can not afford to pay off-duty personnel to work these functions and provide an available truck unless they are now compensated for the overtime.

Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 7:00 p.m. The regular open meeting for bill discussion is scheduled for November 25, 2003 at 10:00 a.m.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to adjourn the meeting at 7:30 p.m., 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Respectfully submitted,



Jerry G. Schloss, Secretary

JGS/pgv