CAMPTON-THORNTON FIRE DEPARTMENT
FIRE COMMISSIONER’S MEETING MINUTES for JUNE 11, 2012
Meeting was called to order @ 16:00 hours.
In attendance: Lou Klotz, Kelly Bolger, Chief Tobine, Deputy Halm
Members of the public: Ron Reynolds
Manifest reviewed and approved by the Board.
Old Business:
Minutes of May 14th meeting were read. A revision to the wording under Emergency Operations Center was made. Strike the words “at the fire house†and replace with “at the Campton Town Officeâ€.  A motion was made by Kelly and seconded by Lou to approve the minutes of May 14th meeting with change. Approved unanimously.
Chief spoke about the grant application for a generator for the Campton Town Office. Chief met with Paul Hatch, Emergency Management Representative, and Kelly Bolger to discuss what was needed in the grant. Kelly will get a floor plan to review and then we will apply. Kelly has a meeting with architect in Manchester at 10:00 tomorrow. He will get answers and a floor plan.
New Business:
Chief Tobine informed the Board he did get Juvenile Fire Setter Specialist I certification and took the Juvenile Fire Setter II Program at the Fire Academy last weekend. He now has his Juvenile Fire Setter Specialist II certification. Chief Tobine is interested in pursuing a program to recognize juvenile fire setting in the community. He believes there is a need in our community and will pursue funding for implementing such a program.
Lou questioned why the electric bill @ Station 3 was 4x last year at this time. Chief reviewed the bill for the Campton substation. Chief will look into possibilities of why this bill may have increased in May.
Kelly invited Ron Reynolds to the meeting to get some ideas about a web site for Fire Department. Chief and staff would like to participate in creating a web site for the department. Ron thought having a tier off the town websites could be problematic. The Department currently has an extension off the Town websites with fire laws on it. Chief Tobine would like to have an actual link from the Town websites to Fire Department site so that we could add or delete information on a daily basis.
Ron reported his background of how he got into creating web sites. He feels that he has skills to assist the FD in building a no frills website. Chief Tobine inquired about the fees for a host. It would be around $100/year for an off-site host and the nice thing is that information can be stored on it.
The domain name usually ends with .org or .com (CTfiredept.com) and has a yearly licensing fee around $100.  There is an organization that maintains the domain names. Not sure how volunteer fire departments fit in but once these two things are figured out then it is a matter of what information is wanted on the website.
Ron asked if it is going to be a clearing house for information for the professional, volunteer staff, as well as the community. Chief Tobine stated he would like the site to be able to be accessed by community members and fire department members but we would like to put things such as fire class danger on because that changes daily. We would like to change that each morning so everyone would know if we were issuing fire permits. We are in a pilot program with the State now about issuing permits online and if that goes through we will be doing them online. We would like to put out Incident stats on site, list department members and general information. Lou Klotz asked if we currently use any forms that people come in for that we could put on website. Chief responded he would like to put some knowledge based items on site for people to reference such as woodstove installation requirements. Ron mentioned we could scan pamphlets and download them to the site.
The Fire Department would like to get information out about our fire prevention program and the explorer program. Deputy Halm inquired if it was easy to have a password protected section for us to use for schedules and department announcements. Ron said for in-house sensitive information that can be designed so only department staff can access that.
Lou asked if we could have links to click on to get a fire permit, get educational documents, a background section separate (password protected) so we could do on line communication. As far as fancy graphics, there are enough pictures available.
Lou inquired what the process is of building a website. Do you start out with the host right away or do it on your own computer first. Ron said you need to decide what you want to communicate and structure it. The Bog used software called Dreamweaver and typically he adds info to his computer and uses FTP (file transfer program) and clicks on host. It ends up with 2 pages and you drag and drop from home page and open program and drag and drop it in. Ron thought it is easier than email.
Ron would be happy to work with some in-house people that would be interested in working on project as he is not knowledgeable on the working of a FD. Lou asked Ron if he had the time to invest in this project and he said he does.
Ron has been working for two years with May at Campton Town Office to put tax maps into a digital format and add the fire cisterns. They put down where the fire stations are so they can put that on the tax map.
The FD will look for a host. Julie will check with Mozy and Chief will check with LRMFA. Ron thought there may be people who specialize in Fire Departments sites. Ron will check to see if anyone is using the name Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue as a web name.
Lou made a motion to move forward with construction of the web site and Kelly seconded motion.
The Board thanked Ron for attending and providing information.
Chief’s Report:
Need to discuss proposal for worker’s compensation insurance. Chief Tobine said the FD has been with this company for over 20 years. Both Lou and Chairman Kelly were in agreement to sign off on worker’s compensation insurance.
Motion to approve proposal for Primex Worker’s Compensation as submitted on March 20, 2012 (quote is dated March 20th) seconded by Lou.
Chief Tobine discussed FEMA grant process with Tammie for Thornton. She said when it was developed the Select Boards talked quite a bit about it and if it is a 2 step grant (meaning you can apply and if awarded you can accept or deny grant), then we don’t need to ask the Town’s permission to apply. However, if it is a grant that you apply for and you are accepting because you have applied, then Chief needs to go to the Select board first.
We intend to apply for equipment and possibly an ambulance this year. The application period opened on the June 11th and closes on July 6th.
Hardship applications: Six totaling $ 6010.75. Chief asked if we need one more board member to make the decision. Kelly inquired on opinions – Chief had requested additional info. Only one that Chief did not request additional information on and that bill is for $152.79 (they paid major portion of bill already). The additional info is attached to each application. Do you want to review today or wait till next month for additional board members? Lou inquired about ramifications of waiting. Chief said they will just get another bill. Lou’s recommendation is to bring these back @ next month’s meeting. Kelly agrees with Lou to wait until next month.
Ambulance income from previous month after deductions = Campton (58%) $5249.57; Thornton (38%) 3,439.37; Â Ellsworth (4%) 362.04; Totaling $9,050.98.
Chief will get another board member to sign manifest as we usually have three members sign off.
Lou made a motion to adjourn, Kelly seconded.
Meeting adjourned @ 17:10.
Respectfully submitted,
Julie O’Neill