MENDON FIRE DISTRICT
Board of Commissioner
District Meeting Minutes (Approved)
May 8th, 2025
ROLL CALL (meeting called to order 19:00 hrs. on 05/08/2025 by R. Wilsey)
| PRESENT | NAME | CAPACITY | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| YES | Baumer, Heidi | Treasurer | |
| NO | Considine, Dan | Commissioner | |
| YES | Fletcher, William | General Counsel | |
| YES | Friedlander, David | MFD 1st Assistant Chief | |
| YES | Joint, Richard | Commissioner | |
| YES | Sellman, Tom | Secretary | |
| YES | Shipe, John | Commissioner | |
| NO | Shuler, Steve | Commissioner | Out of Town |
| YES | Tschiderer, Steve | MFD, Chief | |
| YES | Wilsey, Ryan | Commissioner (Chairman) |
OTHER ATTENDEES NOTED
| NAME | CAPACITY | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Arman | MFD President | Representing MFD Board of Directors |
| Dale Sweet | MFD District Administrator |
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
CALENDAR / MEETING ROOM REQUEST REVIEW
The following meeting room requests (for year 2025) were submitted for approval. Secretary Sellman indicated calendar is free for them. The consensus of the Board was to accept the requests outlined.
| May 6th & 13th | Scout Pack 105 Den Meeting ( 6 -7 pm ) |
| June 14th | Mendon resident Rebecca Webster (via Connor Dixon-Schwabl ) parking lot use for Valet Service (3 to 11 pm). Secretary Sellman will communicate the areas of the parking lots that are either off-limits or places to avoid concentrations of traffic. |
SECRETARY ITEMS
Past Meeting Minutes: R. Wilsey motioned to approve the April 10th 2025 District meeting minutes with a second by J. Shipe. The motion passed with unanimous consent of those present: 3-0-0.
Penflex LOSAP Annual Report: Sellman reported receipt of the 2024 Annual Report from Penflex that contained the invoice for the expected $ 37,007.74 funding allocation by June 7th. A voucher was generated and to be included in the Treasurer’s report later in the meeting. Copy of the report given to Treasurer Baumer for audit purposes.
Driver Incident Report: Sellman acknowledged receipt of minor incident with 367 and skunk collision – no damage.
NYS Real Property Tax Exemption: Sellman reviewed reminder from Assoc. of Fire Districts of NYS that adoption of the more comprehensive Real Property Tax Exemption (466-A) be formally completed by Dec 9th, 2025. He reviewed that the Town of Mendon adopted their amendment to incorporate all changes to bring them into full conformance in Oct. 2024 ( Local Law 4 of 2024, Chapter 230 Taxation Article XII). Sellman to get Counsel Fletcher details to review such that the Fire District is in the position to formally recognize & accept the NYS Exemption ruling at the next District Meeting.
MENDON FIRE DEPT BOARD OF DIRECTORS REPORT (President Arman)
Board of Education Presentation: Arman reviewed the outcome from the very brief time (two 3 min. Public Comment slots) allotted for Department members (Arman, Knapp, DeRuyscher) to present our case for the School Board to re-consider the 10% firefighter tax exemption. The School Board indicated they would get back to the Department in the July timeframe. There was generalized discussion regarding further planning and strategy development to bring this issue into a more public issue. Quantification of support from surrounding Departments was also discussed.
CHIEF’S REPORT
See Appendix A [pg1 & 2] for content presented in Chief Tschiderer’s report.
There was a brief discussion regarding the analytic times with the Chief acknowledging the item of most interest/importance is the Enroute (e.g. response) values. This was in recognition and understanding of the multiple variables outside of our control with respect to On-Scene times.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Voucher & Reconciliation Review
Treasurer Baumer supplied reconciliation statements for April with the usual voucher listing, billing from credit cards & autopay. There were two items that Treasurer Baumer pointed out : (A) check outstanding written to Noticestry ( Wilsey assumed lost and requested a new check to be generated), and (b) outstanding check to member Nancy Rovik ( associated with a training class reimbursement ). President Arman to reach out to Rovik.
See Appendix B for content.
Treasurer Baumer requested clarification on the payment mechanism arrangement and categorization for monies given to Tom May (recent training officer brought on as a W2 employee). As of the meeting, a check was being generated as a generalized payment. At the end of discussion, Commissioner Wilsey indicated that Commissioner Considine needs to correct the ADP payment configuration for this. This led to a brief discussion with Commissioner Wilsey to needing some employment agreement with Tom May with a job description and that he should be subject (from an HR standpoint) to sexual harassment training, have a handbook, etc.
R. Wilsey motioned to approve the Treasurer’s report. This was seconded by R. Joint and passed unanimously by those present: 3-0-0.
OPERATIONAL COMMITTEE REPORTS
Capital Projects / Special Projects (R. Wilsey in S. Shuler’s absence)
NYS VFIRE Grant Project Status
Wilsey noted that S. Shuler is engaging with several companies to get understanding of the required bidding and RFP process. D. Sweet indicated he submitted the quarterly report to NYS. Wilsey also reviewed conversations with NYS to discuss the District’s approach — receiving positive feedback : find a design/build firm with open book accounting allowing direct payment while meeting the requirements for minority/women/veteran owned businesses.
Apparatus
| Vehicle/Equip | Issues/Problems/Plans |
|---|---|
| 364 | No issue |
| 365 | No issue |
| 367 | No issue |
| 3617 | No issue |
| 3618 | No issue |
| Haul Trailer | No issue |
| 3c16 | No issue |
| 3c26 | No issue |
367 Squad Truck Replacement: Secretary Sellman reported that there has not been any response/inquiry/objection to the District with respect to the Permissive Referendum notice posted April 10th, 2025 to the web-site and Honeoye Falls Sentinel newspaper.
Administrator Sweet led a discussion updating the Board on the responses received through the mini-bid process. Of the five bids returned the low and high bids did not meet the published specifications. The middle price bid of $ 53,786.93 from Barnard Chevrolet (Churchville, NY) was the only one that met the specifications for the Chevrolet 3500 pickup truck Silverado package. Upon analysis and recommendation from full research, J. Shipe moved that the District purchase the truck at the bid price from Barnard. This was seconded by R. Joint and passed by unanimous consent by those present: 3-0-0.
D. Sweet then reviewed the Iconic Elements Inc. truck bed compartment pack for the above pickup. Dale indicated that this is an item that is sole source with Iconic as the only builder. The pricing of the truck pack is $ 17,426. R. Wilsey motioned that the District purchase the truck pack as specified. This was seconded by R. Joint and passed by unanimous consent by those present: 3-0-0. Dale also noted that he will investigate if the 50% down purchasing requirement has any flexibility based since it’s being purchased by a fire agency.
Dale will be researching vendor sources (NYS contract) for the light packages required for the above new truck.
Purchase Orders
- 25-09A: 3500SilveradoPickupTruck (approved above)
- 25-09B: Iconic Truck Pack (approved above)
- 25-08: 15 traffic stop/slow paddles for Fire Police & Trucks – ( $ 653.25 total ) from Traffic Safety Store. R. Wilsey motioned to accept the purchase order – seconded by J. Shipe and passed by unanimous consent by those present: 3-0-0.
Buildings and Grounds (D. Sweet in S. Shuler’s absence)
Dale briefly discussed two items requiring repair : the boiler and the dishwasher in the station kitchen. R. Wilsey made a motion to accept the District Administrators report (See Appendix C for content). J. Shipe seconded the motion which passed by unanimous consent by those present: 3-0-0.
Personnel & Leadership
Recruiting/Retention : C. Knapp gave a quick overview of the new members that had joined since the last commissioner’s meeting. He also noted that a significant percentage of new (plus an existing member) will be pursuing EMT certification.
There was a lengthy discussion led by Secretary Sellman with respect to the current status of the member incentive program (Training and Effort Metrics). Based on observations from the report within RedAlert that Assist Chief Kester and Sellman were extracting the metric data, there were several clarifications and improvement opportunities that will need to be taken off-line and polished. There were questions raised with respect to possible payment schemes – however it was clarified that most, if not all metrics have time-dependent evaluation period that requires the full calendar year to complete before any payment possibilities exist. It was also clarified that when Fire Police respond in their POV, it is considered an MFD apparatus. Making the internal-approved metrics for evaluation more transparent to the membership was observed to be a needed goal.
Information/Technology (R. Wilsey)
Laptop on order for Chief May (training use).
Looking at options for upgrades to the iPads (currently 5-yrs old and aged out).
D.A. Sweet working with Toshiba on some maintenance/repair issues. This led into a discussion regarding observations by Dale that the invoicing from Toshiba showed usage to be 5K over the quarterly allotment for color printing. This continues a trend that the need to purchase of paper has been significantly growing. There also seems to be a lot of wasted copies in the trash. It was agreed a need to track and re-examine next month.
OLD BUSINESS
None.
NEW BUSINESS
President Arman and C. Knapp presented the department’s recent vote to approve a power-washer system, dependent on the District’s approval to pay for the maintenance contract and allow it’s installation in the truck bay.
There were no details available for consideration with respect to cost of a maintenance contract. It was also pointed out that the Department’s BOD needs to issue their approval for the expenditure as well. As such, the issue was tabled.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
MEETING ADJOURNMENT
At approximately 19:58, R. Wilsey made a motion to adjourn the meeting which was seconded by R. Joint, passing by unanimous consent of those present: 3-0-0.hose present: 4-0-0.
Minutes Respectfully Submitted by
Tom Sellman,
District Secretary
Mendon Fire District
