Minutes Board of Directors Meeting 11/18/03

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 Capt. Bertelsmeier, Lt. Heidbreder, Pvt. L. Lewellen and Citizens from the District.

Pledge of allegiance was led by Captain Bertelsmeier.

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

Motion by Mr. Bettag to accept the minutes from the closed executive sessions of October 7, 2003, October 21, 2003, October 28, 2003, and October 30, 2003, and the minutes from the general sessions of October 15, 2003, and October 21, 2003, 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Mr. Bettag gave the treasurer’s report for the month ending October 31, 2003. Mr. Bettag stated that at the present time we are waiting for tax revenue to start coming in, otherwise we are trying to stay within our budget. The tax bills were just mailed out last week and it should be a few weeks before we start to see an influx of revenue.

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 have installed over 300 alarms and given out countless batteries since the beginning of October. 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 stated that the District saved thousands of dollars on the engine room garage doors by purchasing the rollers separately and having Capt. Schuessel and his crew install them.

Chief Svetanics reported that he met with officials from Professional Claims Processing, the Division of Gateway Ambulance who does our ambulance billing, along with Mr. Bettag, Ms. Vincent and the District’s Medical Officer, Lt. Michalski. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss why our ambulance fees have not been getting paid by Medicare. Mr. Bettag explained that since Medicare went to a paperless system a few months ago, they were not processing the claims correctly electronically, so now that they have caught the error we should be expecting a lump sum payment in the area of $32,000 from Medicare by the end of November.

Chief Svetanics reported that fire districts all around us are raising their ambulance fees to increase revenue and submitted a report for future discussion and suggested we keep in mind that we need a new ambulance. Mr. Stonebraker suggested we put it on the December agenda. Mr. Stonebraker asked if we have specs for a new ambulance. Chief Svetanics reported that we have done all the research and if we had the funding, we would be ready to make a purchase.

Chief Svetanics attended the monthly meeting at South County Fire Alarm and the results of this meeting were that the fees were going up because of the following causes: (1) The employees are due a pay raise; (2) The medical insurance costs for the employees have escalated; and (3) Shady Valley is leaving the service, which means that Lemay will have to share the costs along with the remaining districts to cover those extra costs. Chief Svetanics estimates that it will be in the neighborhood of about $3,000 in costs to the District.

Chief Svetanics stated that the hydrant testing for the District is completed.

Mr. Stonebraker asked Chief Svetanics to comment about the overtime report. Chief Svetanics reported that overtime is down considerably since we are trying to keep it at a minimum and being concerned about finishing the fiscal year in the black.

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.

Mr. Stonebraker stated the Board commends and recognizes the great job Pvt. Ron Harder is doing as the Public Relations Officer and that the District had received two letters of thanks for the work Pvt. Harder had done. Mr. Stonebraker also commended Pvt.’s Lewellen and Murphy for their good work regarding a letter received thanking them for their help during an ambulance call.

Mr. Stonebraker stated that Lemay hosted the monthly meeting and dinner of the St. Louis Metro Fire District Alliance at Cusanelli’s Restaurant.

Mr. Stonebraker reported that Ace Hardware had their grand opening and the Board of Directors attended the ribbon cutting. Mr. Stonebraker stated that although the District had given Ace Hardware a tax break, they refused it stating they would rather see the Fire District keep the money. Mr. Stonebraker stated that we could not ask for a better business to join the District.

Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 16, 2003 at 7:00 p.m. The regular open meeting for bill discussion is scheduled for December 22, 2003 at 10:00 a.m.

There were questions from the citizens and responses from the Board.

Motion by Mr. Stonebraker to adjourn the meeting at 7:25 p.m., 2nd by Mr. Schloss. Roll call vote, all ayes.

Respectfully submitted,



Jerry G. Schloss, Secretary

JGS/pgv