HARMONY FIRE DISTRICT

P.O. Box 360 – 194 Putnam Pike

Harmony, R.I.  02829

 

 

The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board was held at the Harmony Fire Station on Thursday, April 16, 2009.

 

Present:            Moderator - Raymond Fogarty, Jr.; Treasurer - Sandra Owens;

Tax Collector - Kimberly Barber; Clerk - Ann Dahlquist;

            Board Members - Louise Michaels, James Richards & Milton Huston

                         

Absent:             Chief Stuart Pearson; Board Member - George Kain;

                        Attorney - Fred Mason, Jr.

 

I. – Meeting Called to Order:  7:12 pm by Moderator Fogarty. 

 

II. - Approval of the minutes from the March 19th meeting. 

Moderator Fogarty asked the board if there were any discrepancies to note on the minutes from the March 19th meeting.  If not, he would like to call for a motion to accept them. 

 

Jim made a motion to accept the minutes.  Milton seconded the motion.  The motion carried.

 

III. - Treasurer’s Report:

As mentioned last month, there are problems reconciling the monthly reports, probably due to the addition of payroll liability accounts added when payroll was started in-house with QuickBooks.  Our accountant Geoff Malo was asked to look into this, but he has been extremely busy with tax season, so he has not been able to as of yet.    

 

However, Sandy presented reports for the months of January, February and March according to the general ledger as it stands.  Beginning balance January 1st $361,957.53 and the ending balance March 31st $322,145.47.  The expenses show that 72% of the budget has been expended, which appears to be on target with three-quarters of the year complete.  Other than that, there were no expenses out of the ordinary to report.

 

Ray stated that at our next monthly meeting on May 21st the budget for fiscal year 2009-2010 will need to be complete.  Sandy and Kim agreed that will not be a problem.

 

Louise made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  Milton seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

IV. - Tax Collector’s Report:

Taxes receivable balance is $109,205.67 as of today’s date.  Taxes collected in the month of

March were $8,262.41.  The revenue amount was reduced by  $1,908.53, due to the fact that one of the tax sale properties last year has been redeemed and the money was refunded to RI Housing.  Third party billing monies collected in the month of March totaled 7,497.31. 

 

Also a payment was received from Harmony Hill School, of which half was paid out to the Fire Prevention Officer.

 

Kim had been contacted by an officer from the Foster Center Volunteer Fire Department, asking for a copy of our charter and any amendments to it.  While looking through the archive documents, she could not tell if she actually had all of the information.  She contacted the RI State Librarian at the State House and got photo copies of all the documents.  Then she contacted the RI State Archivist and had certified copies made.  The Secretary of State billed the district approximately $42 for these certified copies, which will now be kept in the safe. 

 

Ray suggested that after the June meeting there should be a “Charter Review Committee” created to look over these documents, because it has been a long time since it has been done.  Kim stated that there have been no amendments filed since 1985.

 

Kim notified the board that she had raffle tickets available for the upcoming Glocester Fire Departments Annual Banquet, if anyone was interested in purchasing some.  The Banquet is to be held on Saturday, May 2nd.

 

Milton made a motion to accept the tax collector’s report.  Louise seconded it. 

The motion carried.

 

V. - Chief’s Report:

Kim gave a brief report for the Chief in his absence. 

 

The Chief wanted to mention an article that was printed in the Providence Journal on Wednesday, April 8th.  It stated that, “43% of emergency medical services in RI are not equipped to diagnose heart attacks and even when they have the equipment, the staff often has not been trained to use it, or just fails to do so”.  He wanted to assure the board that our rescue has had a monitor in place for three years and our crew has been trained to use it.  Actually, we even received a grant to provide 12-lead training.  Therefore, this article in no way reflects the truth here at Harmony Fire Department.

 

A bill was received from Gem Plumbing for the work that was taking place during last month’s meeting.  The Chief has been in contact with them a few times about getting this bill adjusted, because he did not feel that it was appropriate for the amount of work that they had performed.  They had billed us for 5 men at a total of 27 hours.  Ray stated that the owners of the company are coming in on Tuesday morning to meet with him and the Chief and this is one of the items that they will be going over.

 

Kim also mentioned that George had left some information about the new call-pay proposal with her.  Both George and the Chief wish to be here when the information is presented that way they can answer any questions that the board may have though.  So there will be no new information to present on this subject tonight.  Ray stated that the information will need to be presented by the next meeting, but please get any figures available to Sandy as soon as possible so she can have them for the budget.

 

Ray wanted to mention an article that he had seen in the Observer today, regarding Scituate’s ongoing call-pay and union issues.  Now they have involved the IRS.  Kim believes that they are probably asking the IRS to make a ruling as to whether their per/diem people should be classified as employees or sub-contractors.  She stated that currently the Scituate people receive 1099’s, where here we put our per/diem people through payroll and withhold taxes.

 

Engine 23, Harmony’s Brush Truck, has broken down.  The high end gears are gone.  This is the same truck that we had tried to replace through a grant last year and were declined.  Jim asked if it could be repaired.  Kim said that the crew had contacted George during the Monday night drill and he is trying to track parts down through his many contacts.  With the Tri-State meeting coming up soon, he will be able to talk to even more people then.  For now we have West Glocester’s truck here.

 

Jim made a motion to accept the chief’s report given in absentia.  Milton seconded it.  The motion carried.

 

VI. - Committee Reports:

a.       Rescue Committee – none given

b.      Tax Exemption Committee –

this item has been finalized and will be removed from the agenda

 

VII. - Old Business:  Call-Pay review – George Kain – already addressed in Chief’s Report

 

VIII. - New Business:  Addressed throughout reports.

 

IX. - Public Input:  No audience.

 

X. – Executive Session:  None called.

 

XI. – Adjournment: 

Louise made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  Jim seconded it.  The motion carried. 

The April meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board was adjourned at 7:26 pm.

 

The next meeting of the Harmony Fire District Executive Board

is scheduled for Thursday, 7:00 pm, May 21, 2009 at the Harmony Fire Department.

The Budget for FY 2009-2010 will be finalized at this meeting.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Kimberly S. Barber

Tax Collector/Secretary