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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