Village Ordinances & Resolution Meetings

What was suppose to be a meeting free week at Village Hall turned out to be three days of activities. There was an Emergency Meeting Monday, May 11, at 2 P.M., for two ordinances that were on first reading from last week's regular Council meeting. Another meeting was attempted on Tuesday morning for approval to apply for a FEMA grant for WFD that was cancelled for lack of a quorum. Two council members were working and a third had a family committment. That meeting was finally held yesterday morning.

Monday's meeting was short and sweet. Unanimous approval was given for Ord. 09-09 to hire two temporary part-time employees for the Street Dept. They will be primarily used for grass cutting. They will be scheduled for 24 hours a week at $8 per hour. The two employees to be hired worked for the village last year.

Also receiving unanimous approval was Ord. 09-10 authorizing the mayor to enter into another five year contract with United Water to operate the village Sewage Treatment plant. According to Water & Sewage Chairman Randy Allmon the contract is basically the same with a few minor wording changes. United Water bought Earth Tech last year and assumed the old contract we had with them. The on site operator for our plant is the same fellow that worked for Earth Tech. The new contract takes effect June 1 and the monthly bill remains the same at $20,259 per month.

The Wednesday morning meeting was called to authorize WFD Chief Bill Smith to apply for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for new turn out gear and air paks. Grant Source Professionals just learned of the availability of this grant and advised Smith that the dead line for applying was May 20, with lots of work to be done beforehand.

The total amount of the grant is $135,569.68 for a whole shopping list of new turn-out gear and air paks. The turn out gear includes coat, pants, boots, gloves and helmets with shields. Air paks are breathing apparatus that fire fighters don when it's necessary to enter a smoke filled building. It includes air cylinders that give the firemen 45 minutes duration, face pieces with harness, a voice amplifier and a heads up display to warn the firemen the air is running low.

Although the volunteers have up graded their equipment over the years the last time new equipment was purchased for the three full time and the 25 paid call out fire fighters goes back to the 1990s. With nearly two decades of wear & tear it is beyond time to upgrade and replace that equipment. The village share of the grant is 10% which will be applied to next year's budget. That is the standard share FEMA applies for fire departments in muncipalities with a population under 25,000. There is a $650 application fee for the grant writers that will be appropriated from this year's budget. If WFD fails to get the FEMA grant the application fee for the next one is free. If the grant is rewarded there will be an additional 8% of the total grant paid to the writers. It was thought this amount will be included in the total applied for which is permissable under FEMA regulations.

All in all it's a fairly cheap price to help insure the safety for those fire fighters that risk life & limb everytime they are called to a fire. They are a special breed that provide a service that is so very vital to our residents. Let's hope the grant is rewarded. Also, as alluded to in the MJ this morning, I'm glad that our elective officials made time to pass this resolution.

ole nib