Missoula County Fire Protection Association

MCFPA Meetings

MCFPA MINUTES

MCFPA General Membership Meeting
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 7:00 PM
Clinton Rural Fire District

In Attendance: Susan Bomstad – Missoula County 9-1-1; Becky White - USFS Seeley Lake; Roy Robinson - Missoula Dispatch; Brent Christopherson - Missoula Rural Fire; Matt Hall - Missoula Unit, DNRC; Gary Honold - Missoula City Fire; Bob Reid - Missoula County DES; Mamie Colburn – Missoula City-County Health Department; Jim Carlson – Missoula City-County Health Department; Hugh Warford - Florence Fire; Rick Hagen – Clinton Fire; Larry Bush – Missoula Dispatch; Cindy Super – DNRC SWLO; Frank Maradeo – Seeley Lake Fire; Emmitt Tucker - Clinton Fire; Justin Farrington – Clinton Fire; Bill Colwell – Missoula Rural Fire; Bryce Rieger – Clinton Fire; Craig Jeppson – Montana Fire Services Training School; Larry Schwindt – East Missoula Fire; Travis Wafstet – East Missoula Fire; Justin Shaffer – East Missoula Fire; Michael Painter – Missoula City Fire.

Guests In Attendance: Bob Deaton – Missoula Valley CISM Team; Bob Kreisa – MTG Management; Kent Green – MTG Management; Beckie Kolenberg – Montana Interactive

Chairman Maradeo called the meeting to order and on behalf of the Association offered thanks to Clinton Fire for hosting this month's meeting.

All Association members & guests introduced themselves.

Painter asked if there were any corrections or additions to September's meeting summary – seeing none, that summary was adopted by unanimous vote.

Painter gave financial & correspondence report for November:
• MCFPA CY2009 Financial Report
• MCFPA Missoula Federal Credit Union Statements – Sep.09 & Oct.09
• Account Balances as of 10/31/09: Savings (Share): 16,716.73; Checking: 850.34
• Correspondence:
o Email from MFD Asst. FM Honold regarding 2009 MCFPA puppet shows:
 30 out of 32 schools participated
 66 presentation were given
 1,629 children were contacted
o Fire Prevention Training Workshop Flyer
o Email from Becki Kolenberg responding to questions about Lewis & Clark County's on-line open burning permit program

OLD BUSINESS

MCFPA Puppet Show Report
Gary Honold reported on this year's MCFPA puppet shows – and thanked MCFPA agencies for all of the help they provided. Chairman Maradeo thanked Gary for his outstanding work at coordinating MCFPA's public education programs.

Osprey Bobblehead Fire Safety Night (08/20/10)
Cindy Super gave a report on this year's Osprey Bobblehead event – this year is the Centennial of the 1910 fires.

MCFPA Public Education Supplies
Painter reported that MFD had ordered approximately $100 worth of public education materials from NFPA and was in the process of using those materials as templates for developing / expanding our public education library. Any MCFPA agency interested in stocking some of those supplies should contact Painter or MFD's fire prevention bureau to make arrangements to look through that library of materials.

MCFPA Scholarship Committee Report
Frank Maradeo reported on the progress of MCFPA's college scholarship program – the Association will award two separate scholarships of $1,000 each to the college of the winning high school seniors' choice. Scholarship applications are due March 1st, 2010 – the MCFPA Board of Directors will serve as the selection committee.

MCFPA Fire Sprinkler Trailer Report
Brent Christopherson reported that he had been in contact with Fire Protective Services and that they were still interested in upgrading the Association's sprinkler trailer. Brent will be meeting with Ross some time in December.

Montana State EMS Care Committee
Painter gave a brief report on the work being done by the Montana State EMS Care Committee – a phone conference is scheduled for early in January and there is also information about the Committee's agenda & discussion available on the website of the Montana State Fire Chiefs' Association.

VFA / RFA Grants
Painter asked that all departments interested in applying for a VFA / RFA Grant in 2010 please pick up the packets available with information on those grants. Per those grant guidelines, MCFPA will be submitting a grant on behalf of MCFPA agencies – the 2010 grant guidelines are expected to be out in January. All departments were asked to please appoint a contact individual for MCFPA to work with in completing a grant application & to have an "Appendix A" for any training, equipment or prevention funds they would be seeking completed by January's meeting.

Agency Reports
• Becky White reported that they were busy burning piles in Seeley – seasonal would be finishing up soon.
• Sue Bomstad reported that 9-1-1 had hired 5 new dispatchers who would be in training during the first part of December. Sue also thanked those in attendance for their well wishes and offers of assistance to Deb Ogden and her family.
• Emmitt Tucker reported that calls were down in Clinton.
• Justin Farrington reported that Clinton had recently completed an EMT-B class.
• Rick Hagen reported that he was one of those in Clinton who had taken that training and had recently taken his EMT-B test.
• Bill Colwell reported that MRFD was finishing up their 4th volunteer class for this year. MRFD had announced that Tom Ziegler had been promoted to BC – Tom has been with MRFD since 1976 and serving as Captain since January of 2006. Tom also served on MRFD's fire investigation team. Chief Colwell also informed MCFPA that MRFD Fire Chief Curt Belts would be retiring at the end of March.
• Brent Christopherson reported that MRFD had been busy conducting company inspections. MRFD also was in the process of installing vehicle exhaust extraction systems, which was being paid for in part fram a grant.
• Justin Shaffer reported that East Missoula was up in members – they now had 12 active members.
• Jim Carlson gave a report on Missoula City-County Health Department's work to get first responders vaccinated against H1N1. MCCHD reports that less than half of those patients presenting with influenza-like illnesses actually had H1N1. There was a vaccination clinic scheduled at Sentinel High School on Sunday open to all kids through middle school and they managed to vaccinate more than 2,000 kids.
• Hugh Warford reported that Florence currently had 45 volunteers active with 15 auxiliary members. Florence was hosting an open house at their new station on December 5th.
• Mamie Colburn reported that smoke in the area was probably from Plum Creek doing some burning. The Health Department had received more winter time permit applications this year than usual.
• Bob Reid introduced representatives from MTG who were working with Missoula County on a data network. Bob also announced that the State of Montana had made some funds available to assist Counties with updating of their disaster plans and that MTG would be contracted with to assist with that update as well.
• Bob Deaton reminded everyone of the services available through the Missoula Valley Critical Incident Stress Management Team. The team consisted of 6 peer team members and 5 mental health professionals.
• Larry Bush reported that Kit Kemsley was out of town representing the SouthWest Zone on the NRCG Board. Missoula Dispatch was in the process of changing over to a new version of ICQS which would communicate directly with the ROSS system. Larry also reminded MCFPA agencies that if agencies don’t red card their personnel for engine boss qualification, they need to carry documentation that they have been certified by their agency.
• Matt Hall reported that DNRC's seasonal employees were gone and that they had been doing some burning.
• Cindy Super reported that Mike Kopitzke was out of the office currently and that Terry Vaughn is retiring.
• Frank Maradeo reported that he would be attending the Board of Medical Examiner's public hearing on Friday regarding some EMS changes in the works. Seeley Lake will be doing a recertification class. Calls for Seeley were down some 12.5% this year.

Next Meeting
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 7:00 PM
Missoula Rural Fire District Sta#1
2521 South Ave W, Missoula - (406) 549-6172

NEW BUSINESS

On-Line Burn Permit Program
Becki Kolenberg, with Montana Interactive, gave a presentation on that companies on-line burn permit service. More information is also available on Montana Interactive's website at http://app.mt.gov/walkthrough/burnpermit

Summary by Painter.