MINUTES
Board of Directors Special Meeting
Jasper County Emergency Services
August 2nd, 2016
Chairman Jeff Fries called the meeting to order at 12:04 p.m., at the Board office, 13870 Dispatch Lane, Carthage, MO as per public notice. Present in addition to Chairman Fries were Carl Francis, Tim Wilson, and Dan Stanley. Representing staff was Executive Director April Tarrant. There were no Public Attendees.
Review and Action of Minutes
Minutes of the Board of Director’s Meeting on July 5th, 2016 were reviewed.
Director Wilson motioned to approve minutes for July 5th, 2016. Director Stanley seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Public Comment and Correspondence
No public representation
Financial Report and Payment of Bills
The sales tax check for May was received July 19th in the amount of $ 162,326.48. The July sales tax check has not been received yet.
Recent bills paid online totaled since the last meeting $1,283.88, It was previously approved at that meeting for $1,687.88, but had to remove $404.00 ArcGIS bill since it is not due to be paid until October. Total bills submitted for approval today $39,808.36. The checkbook balance after payment of bills will be $8,280.51. The money market account balance is $741,871.09 .
Accounts receivable balance is $5,833.34. (July and August METS Service Charge) The checkbook balance after receipt of accounts receivable will be $14,113.85.
Director Stanley motioned to approve the Financial Report with Payment of the Bills, with the correction to the previously approved payment of bills. Director Wilson seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Executive Director Report
See Attached Report
Executive Director Tarrant reviewed her report. She explained why Barton County EMS is no longer being dispatched to the Jasper Fire Protection District Area. She explained the changes to Sarcoxie FD dispatching on EMS calls and that there will be procedure to work out on the “All Call” capability in the NexEdge with the Sheriff, Chief Dagnan, and Chief Williams. She told the board that the two trainees that left have taken other jobs (Coast Guard and JCSO Jail). She further explained that the open TCO position has 270 applicants so far by posting it on Indeed.com.
Director Tarrant explained that she will be sending either a team leader or the training coordinator to CCM this year and will not send anyone again until 2018. She explained the expense of moving it to 2017 and the fact that it is now in Florida next year and in the spring.
She explained the problems with the Joplin backup and storage and said she is waiting for quotes on the additional storage. She further explained that the NexEdge re-programming went well, but there are a few issues with the tower changes (tower 1 swap for tower 2) that have hindered Asbury FD from communicating on the system. She also explained that Fire East control radio lost transmitting wattage and Fire West is having problems and it is likely the antenna or the coax and she is waiting on a tower climber to test the coax and antenna. She also said she will be returning the Sprint WEP cell phones since they are now requiring $9 a month per phone and she will be looking into a new reporting system for the Eventide recorder.
She discussed the offer on Logston’s property and stated that she has had a difficult time meeting up with Mr. Logston, but that we need to determine if we want to spend the money on the property if we intend to move in the future for the consolidation. No further discussion occurred about this property.
She expressed concerns about manning Marian Days from the Carthage PD, but said this is something new this year and that she was informed it was due to safety issues and they will try it out this year and see how it works for coverage.
She also explained that Director Dagnan and she had not been able to meet in person with Sarcoxie PD or Sarcoxie City FD yet, but that she had spoken with both chiefs by phone and that the PD seems to be trying the new blue tooth extender device with JCSO and they will let her know how this works. She said that Mayor Triplett called her and expressed his concern about the lack of coverage and the cost of the extender devices. He asked about JASCO dispatching on their private frequency and this is not possible.
Committee Reports
Nothing to report.
New Business:
Insurance Renewal
Executive Director Tarrant reported Anthem renewal down by .08% and made the recommendation to keep Anthem again this year. She further explained that Delta Dental and VSP are not in yet, but will likely increase around 5%.
Director Wilson motioned to stay with Anthem and offer the same plan. Director Stanley seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Sales Tax Rate
Executive Director Tarrant reported that there is intent to increase or decrease the current sales tax rate for E9-1-1.
Director Stanley motioned to keep the E9-1-1 sales tax rate the same with no changes. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Toll Free Numbers
Executive Director Tarrant reported that she is looking into removing the two toll free numbers to the Center, (800-358-3436 for the Communication Room and 800-3358-3439 for the Administrative Office). She will bring this back to the Board when further information is known.
Securities Pledge June 30, 2016
Executive Director Tarrant reported a securities pledge from Country Club Bank as of June 30, 2016 for current face value of $1,000,000.00 from Federal Farm Credit Bank.
Director Wilson motioned to accept the securities pledge. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Budget Amendment 60911 / Storage Space for Off Site Backup
Executive Director Tarrant explained that she may need to use some of the $8,200 left over in the Computer Hardware GL #60911 of the budget for the upgrade of storage to the off-sight backup at Joplin.
SunGard Message Switch Upgrade and Project for One Solution on Tablets
Executive Director Tarrant also explained that they are still in discussion for the final quotes on the SunGard Message Switch Upgrade and Project for One Solution on Tablets. This will come in under $15,000 and probably near $12,000. She will bring the final amount back to the Board for approval since this was a non-budgeted item.
JASCO Radio System
Discussion about the JASCO Radio System and Fire Dispatching occurred, related to some fire agencies leaving NexEdge or stating they may need to leave the NexEdge system due to lack of coverage. Executive Director Tarrant asked for permission to keep the JASCO Conventional Radio System (Fire East, Fire West, and Law Backup) up and online until they can no longer do so. The Board agreed that it will stay up with no immediate plans to take the system down and to use it as a backup system or as agencies need to move off the NexEdge. Chairman Fries recommended and the Board agreed that there needs to be some goals to improve the NexEdge and asked that Director Tarrant meet with Sheriff Kaiser and the Carthage City Officials, Chief Dagnan and Chief Williams to discuss the possibility of an independent study or getting a NexEdge radio consultant involved to look at the coverage of the system and make recommendations, if needed. Director Tarrant offered that this could be as simple as programming radios or a previous suggestion from another radio vendor to JCSO personnel was that it could be an issue with the combiner and maintenance may be all that is necessary. The concerns seem to come from the Carterville, Duenweg, and Sarcoxie area, however recently after the tower 1 and 2 swap, they are coming from the Asbury area and there is a frequency on the system that is interfering with the Jasper FD frequency.
Fire Dispatching
Director Tarrant further explained that with departments wanting JASCO to dispatch individually on their private radio channel, this would cause an overload of work on the staff and it is not possible with the current infrastructure on the tower since there is not enough radios. She further explained that some agencies kept their pagers and have asked if they could be paged off the old system and dispatched off the NexEdge. She will look into the possibility of this, however the Board may not maintain the Analog system forever and they need to be prepared for this to possibly change in the future.
Items to Surplus
List of items to surplus and be sold or destroyed due to being broken or no longer needed.
Director Wilson motioned to accept the surplus list. Director Stanley seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
Old Business:
Meeting Times
Director Wilson will confirm his new school schedule and let us know before making changes. No action taken.
Service Agreement
Executive Director Tarrant discussed the CAD migration and that it is still on hold by Chief Stewart until he can confirm their plans for the new budget. With the library changes, there may be some further discussion necessary.
1:15 p.m. Director Wilson motioned to adjourn. Director Francis seconded the motion. Vote: 4-0. The motion was adopted.
The next Board Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 at 12:00 p.m.
On the_____________ day of ______________________20______
I, Jeff Fries – Chairman at Large, _____________________________________________certify these Jasper County Emergency Services Board Meeting Minutes for___________________________. They have been reviewed and are accurate.
On the ____________day of________________________20________
I, Dan Stanley – Secretary__________________________ attest the Jasper County Emergency Services Board Meeting Minutes for _______________________________. They have been reviewed and are accurate.
