Boyceville Community Fire District Board appoints Hackbarth as chair
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by LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Fire District Board has appointed Karl Hackbarth, representative for the Town of Station, as chair of the fire board.
Steve Nielsen, chair of the Town of Stanton, served as the vice-chair of the Boyceville fire board and presided over the special meeting held October 17.
Nielsen told the board that he did not want to serve as chair.
Matt Shepard, the previous chair of the Boyceville fire board, resigned as chair in September.
Shepard was the representative for the Town of Tiffany.
Nielsen was unable to attend the special meeting on October 10, so Hackbarth acted as chair for the October 10 meeting.
Over the previous several weeks, Nielsen said he had received numerous telephone calls about the fire department and that the additional stress was beginning to affect his health.
When asked, Hackbarth said he would accept the nomination for chair.
The Boyceville fire board unanimously approved Hackbarth as chair.
Nielsen chaired the remainder of the October 17 meeting.
Fire chief
In addition to choosing a new fire board chair, the agenda also included approving the appointment of a new fire chief.
Matt Lunderville, the current fire chief, also submitted his resignation at the September meeting, and his resignation is effective December 1.
The firefighters should nominate someone to be the fire chief before the fire board weighs in on the subject, Nielsen said.
Lunderville said the firefighters would be meeting the following Monday and would discuss their choices for fire chief.
Code of conduct
Brad Stevens, representing the village of Boyceville, said he had talked with Rick Merryfield, who is retired from the Eau Claire fire department, about the possibility of a mentor for the Boyceville fire department to work on a code of conduct.
The mentor should be someone who does not live in the Boyceville fire district and who does not know any of the Boyceville firefighters, Stevens said.
Merryfield also talked about a process for selecting a fire chief and officers, he said.
Prior to this, the selection of a fire chief has often been a popularity contest, Stevens said.
Merryfield suggested that Mark Renderman, the fire chief in Altoona, would be a good mentor for the Boyceville fire department, Stevens said, adding that he would have to find out if Renderman would be willing to serve in that capacity, and if so, would also have to find out how much he would charge for his services.
All four of the people Merryfield suggested to approach about being a mentor have served on the state fire board and have taught firefighting classes, he said.
The mentor could perhaps work with the fire department once each week, maybe through a telephone call, and then occasionally attend the fire board meetings, Stevens said.
A code of conduct should have been in order years ago, Nielsen commented.
Complaints
Boyceville has a good fire department, but all of the little complaints build up, and then “someone’s feelings get hurt,” Stevens said.
The complaints are only about “what you can prove,” Nielsen said.
Stevens said he had hoped that the new fire station and the new fire truck would have mitigated some of the friction among firefighters, but apparently that has not been the case.
Boyceville has “a great fire crew,” Nielsen said.
A code of conduct would eliminate “the whistleblowers and the whiners,” Stevens said.
The mentor is not meant to run the shop, but rather, is meant to mentor the fire chief, he said.
Some people think the Boyceville fire department should be like the Menomonie fire department, but Menomonie is full-time and Boyceville is a volunteer fire department, Hackbarth commented.
The Boyceville fire board also discussed retaining legal counsel.
Jeff Carlsrud, chair of the Town of Haven, suggested the attorney used by the Town of New Haven, Stevens said.
If the fire board needs to have any documents drafted, the attorney charges $200 per hour and said he would be willing to help the fire district if he was needed, Stevens said.
After the fire board “gets things settled, then we can see what we need,” Hackbarth said.
The Boyceville Community Fire District Board will hold another special meeting on October 24 at the Boyceville fire station at 6:30 p.m.
