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2007-05-07 MTG17 SP
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MTG 05-07-2007 MTG #17 1
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MTG #17
MAY 7, 2007 RES. 205
6:15 PM
TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT
SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC
COUNCILMAN ROGER BOOR
COUNCILMAN RICHARD SANFORD
COUNCILMAN JOHN STROUGH
COUNCILMAN TIM BREWER
OFFICIALS
Supervisor Stec-Noted that Councilman Brewer is absent at this time but will be present
shortly.
1.0DISCUSSION FIRE CONSULTANT Mr. Mike Wilbur
Supervisor Stec-The impetus for all this was, one of the fire companies has a twenty six
year old aerial device that is beyond worth repairing from what we understand, they
desire for the board to consider a new piece of aerial apparatus. This town board does not
have a lot of fire expertise as individuals ourselves. The last time the Town had anything
related to a fire study was an MMA report that was done in 1996. It was suggested that
we seek help on making this decision and we also thought about what other services you
may provide by looking at the whole fleet town wide.
Mr. Mike Wilbur-Lt. in the New York City Fire Dept. work in ladder company #26 in
the Bronx .. also volunteer fire fighter for 33 years + … I have an Associates Degree in
Fire Protection Technology…also do consulting work .
Councilman Strough-Referring to the reports, noted portions that he liked such as moving
vehicles around based on what was perceived as the needs of the town.
Mr. Wilbur-The object for us, as it should be for you, as it should be for the five fire
companies is to provide the best fire protection possible for the residents of the town.
Noted there are National Standards or ISO they have strict requirements as far as travel
distances and things that we need to adhere to.
Councilman Sanford-I would assume you would have to look at the totality of
Queensbury in order to form an opinion as to where or not their inventory of equipment
makes sense. When we come to the capital component is where I think we fall down as a
board because we do not have a great knowledge of the need for the equipment.
Councilman Boor-We have five fire departments in Queensbury and that will be your
focus but as far as mutual aid goes I would like to know the importance of those
companies that are outside the Town of Queensbury that may have apparatus that we
don’t have is it appropriate to consider apparatus that is close by but not within the Town
when one does the analysis of the ability to protect?
Mr. Wilbur-If you go to ISO mutual aid it is automatic aid, the thing that puts fires out is
not fire trucks and it is not fire hose it is fire fighters, so staffing is very important. You
have to look at the mutual aid component but also have to look at their ability to get the
equipment on the road and come help. Mutual aid, automatic aid is good up to a point
but you cannot expect somebody to come into your town and do stuff that you should be
doing for yourself either. We have to look at all the components. What I envision for
your Town is we would go to each of the fire companies and do a survey of their staffing,
their travel distances, their water supply, their apparatus, the equipment on the apparatus.
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MTG 05-07-2007 MTG #17 2
Supervisor Stec-Would that include getting out and getting a feel for their coverage
areas?
Mr. Wilbur-Absolutely. We would require up front, a map of each district, their current
ISO report, and perhaps a previous one if they have it, we would want a copy of the other
consultants report to see what he came up with. As you saw in the reports that you were
given we picked out fifteen or twenty locations the travel distance and water supply and
as part of the ISO component of this to determine how over distant is that first engine,
how over distant is the first truck company, how does that effect the over all fire
protection that you could provide the citizens in that area. We would do five of those.
That will give each fire company a blue print as to what is going to go on. It will help the
fire companies, they will not have to come in here begging for money for a new truck
because we are going to look at the equipment, there are going to be bench marks that
you are going to have to meet fiscally when you are going to have to buy equipment.
We will give you a blue print where you are going to know what you need to buy whom,
and when you are going to need it so then it will be your job to come up with the money
to be able to enact the plan.
Councilman Sanford-Do you factor in affordability in the blue print?
Mr. Wilbur-Yes, if it is too expensive you cannot expect any group of citizens to just
come up with millions of dollars each year, but on the other hand I would like to think
Tom and I are fiscally conservative but on the other hand when you took the oath of
office to become a Town Councilman you took an oath of office to provide fire
protection to your town, this is part of it.
Councilman Brewer-How do we determine that the fire companies are specking it right?
Mr. Wilbur-It is a question fraught with danger; the trucks have become so technical and
so computerized.
Councilman Strough-I would like to see a comprehensive over all analysis, including us
and adjacent communities we are talking about fifteen volunteer fire companies. Noted
that most of the fire companies that we have are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary
soon, Queensbury was basically agricultural and most of the fire companies formed
accordingly to what it was then. Now you have fire districts that are hard core retail
centers now. West Glens Falls used to be farm land now it is developing residential. The
nature of our five separate companies and what they did when they were originally
established has changed considerably over fifty years. I think we need a big look at the
Town and what is going on.
Mr. Wilbur-The mission has changed we need to adapt as a whole group as an entity to
that change and make it work, that is what this is going to address. I would like to state
on the record that I am an advocate for good fire protection, we are not here as an
advocate necessarily for the Town Board nor are we here for an advocate for the fire
department we are here for an advocate for the citizens.
Councilman Brewer-Asked the time frame of the report?
Mr. Wilbur-We could get started in the fall, it will be approximately six months to do
everything.
Councilman Brewer-Noted that West feels it needs to make a decision on their ladder
truck.
Councilman Sanford-Is there anyway to look at that?
Mr. Wilbur-We could look at West first ok, and we could do them first. You have to
trust us, what you are going to get is based on fact. You can choose to embrace them or
ignore them, we would like to think that we can help you implement what we find and
make it work. For the guys in West, I realize you are without a truck but jumping into
something right now could only end up making a bad situation worse. If you are going to
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MTG 05-07-2007 MTG #17 3
have us on board you have to take a no rush approach and you got to trust us that we are
going to do right by both groups.
Supervisor Stec-We will want a follow up with getting a proposal from you. We can
provide maps, we have ISO ratings from 4,5 to 8,9..we have an ISO done two to three
years ago and that was the first one in eleven or twelve years, we can give you those
reports, we want you to talk to all the companies. We do not want you to do a report on
the surrounding ten or so companies.
Mr. Wilbur-We will consider their assets maybe ask some questions and find out their
ability to get it on the road. The other thing required here we are going to need a person
in each of the five companies to work with us to provide us information. We need to
have all five companies on board with this as well as the Town Board. We do not play
favorites we are here as a third party to come in and give it a good look and find out what
is going on. We are here to report to everybody.
Supervisor Stec-If there is any more information that you need from us to help put the
proposal together don’t hesitate. We would like you to start with West.
Mr. Wilbur-We will go to West we would evaluate the apparatus, and equipment that will
trigger a report we have sixty days to schedule a meeting with West and the Town Board
and discuss the finding and report. I will also need a liaison from the Town, I would like
Dan because he first contacted me, and then a representative from each of the fire
companies. When we get a draft of the report done I will e-mail a copy to Supervisor and
representative of the Fire Company, you are going to have it to check over to make sure it
is factually correct. Once it is factually correct then that will trigger six copies of the
report to Dan and the Town Board. That will come with an invoice payable upon receipt
and you have within sixty days to meet on that. When we come up for that meeting we
will spend a couple of days and start looking at the water supply staffing the fire house
itself to see what shape that is in, response distances and stuff that will trigger another
report on those aspects and the same methodology will go thorough. We will do that
with each of the fire companies and then it will all end up and write one fire protection
study for the Town. That will include a time line of when apparatus needs to be
purchased, you could project fifteen or twenty years out on capital expenditures.
RESOLUTION ADJOURNING SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
RESOLUTION NO. 205.2007
INTRODUCED BY: Mr. John Strough WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION
SECONDED BY: Mr. Richard Sanford
RESOLVED,
that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its
Special Town Board Meeting.
th
Duly adopted this 7 day of May, 2007 by the following vote:
AYES: Mr. Boor, Mr. Sanford, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
Respectfully Submitted,
Miss Darleen Dougher
Town Clerk
Town of Queensbury