Boyceville fire board approved placing public comments on agendas
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville Community Fire District Board has approved adding public comments to the agenda for fire board meetings.
Lee Kegan, representative for the Town of Tiffany and chair of the Boyceville fire board, noted at a special meeting March 19 that public comments had not been part of the agenda for the past two meetings.
At the March 12 meeting, fire board members agreed to consider whether to place public comments on the agenda at the March 19 meeting.
Public comments actually started with Karl Hackbarth as the chair of the fire board, Kegan said.
Hackbarth, who was a representative on the fire board for the Town of Stanton, was appointed as chair of the Boyceville fire board at the October 7, 2024, meeting.
Hackbarth resigned as fire board chair prior to the February 18 meeting when Kegan was appointed as chair.
Following the March 12 meeting, Hackbarth asked to speak to the Tribune Press Reporter and said he had resigned because he no longer believed he could be effective as chair of the fire board.
Prior to Karl Hackbarth adding public comments to the agendas, there were no public comments, Kegan said at the March 19 meeting, noting that there had been a review of previous fire board agendas regarding public comments.
“I think we should have it on the agenda,” said Lynn Smith, representative for the Town of Sherman.
“We should set a time limit,” said Lisa Pederson, representative for the Town of New Haven.
The Boyceville fire board approved putting public comments on the agenda with a time limit of two minutes per speaker, which can be extended by request.
Pederson included that “any unnecessary comments can be shut down” in the motion.
The Boyceville fire board did not define “unnecessary comments.”
Governmental boards do sometimes explicitly limit public comments to items on the agenda.
Representatives for the municipalities voted in favor of the motion with the exception of Brad Stevens, representative for the Village of Boyceville, who voted “no.”
Voting in favor were Michelle Drury (Town of Hay River); Pederson (New Haven); Steve Nielsen (Town of Stanton); Smith (Town of Sherman); Kegan (Town of Tiffany); and Ryan Marten (Village of Wheeler).
Boyceville resident Emily Dow commended the fire board for including public comments on the agendas.
People do have the right to criticize their government, although they do not have the right be disorderly, Dow said.
Code of Conduct
The Boyceville fire board has been talking about a code of conduct for firefighters during many meetings covering the past few months.
The firefighters are not ready to approve the code of conduct yet, Kegan said.
The firefighters want to see the code of conduct for the ambulance district, review it, and discuss the code of conduct at the next meeting of the firefighters, said Josh Pittman, fire chief.
The fire department code of conduct and the ambulance code of conduct should basically be the same, Kegan said.
Wayne Dow, director of the Boyceville ambulance service, was in attendance at the fire board meeting and said he had given the ambulance code of conduct to the fire board three years ago but that it had been rejected.
Credit or debit
Laura Ulrich, clerk-treasurer for the Boyceville fire district, told the board she had gone to the bank to ask whether past fire chiefs had used debit cards or credit cards.
Credit cards provide monthly statements that create a paper trail of expenditures, and the monthly statements allow time to dispute any charges on the credit card, she said.
As the fire chief, Cory Green used a debit card frequently, Ulrich said.
Whether to use a credit card or a debit card is a conversation for the fire board and the fire chief, she said.
Kegan said that he, too, had talked to representatives at the bank, and if the fire district is going to use a credit card, then fire district representatives should spend some time checking to see what is the best deal for a credit card.
The fire district would need a business credit card or a corporate credit card, he said.
Consideration of whether to use a credit card or a debit card for the fire district will be on the agenda at the next meeting.
Following a closed session of the Boyceville fire board to discuss personnel that lasted for about 50 minutes, Kegan announced when the board returned to open session that no decisions had been made.
The Fire District Board meets next on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boyceville fire station.
