Design for new Boyceville fire station expected after January 1

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE —  The design for Boyceville’s new fire station is expected to be complete after the first of the year.

Rich Monn, chair of the Boyceville Community Fire District’s five-year planning committee and representative for the Town of Stanton, reported on the status of the design at the fire district’s October 14 meeting.

At a meeting September 23 with David Chihasky of Five Bugles Design , the five-year planning committee gave Five Bugles the go-ahead to design a fire station that could be submitted to the public for approval, Monn said.

The five-year planning committee will review the design first before it is submitted to the fire board, he said.

The design for the new fire station is expected to be available after January 1, Monn said.

After the five-year planning committee meeting with Five Bugles Design, Boyceville firefighters sat down with Chihasky to begin discussing what they wanted in a new fire station.

Paul Wathke, representative for the Town of Sherman, asked if the design for the new fire station would be the same type of footprint for designs already submitted by Five Bugles.

In addition to the basic building (Option A) design, Five Bugles will design several other options for consideration, Monn said.

Cost

Wathke also asked whether the five-year planning committee had been given a cost for Five Bugles to design the fire station.

Five Bugles did not give the planning committee a number, but the fire board should have a number to work with, Monn said.

Gilbert Krueger, village president and chair of the fire district, asked if Monn would be willing to contact Five Bugles to obtain a cost for designing the building.

Monn said he would contact Five Bugles to find out a cost and would have the information sent to the village clerk’s office.

Workshop

Mike Blechinger, representative for the Town of Tiffany, reported that he had attended a workshop in Eau Claire for towns and villages and had attended one session by a professor about “engaging the public when issues get wicked.”

The workshop session was given by Professor Bill Rizzo of the UW-Extension’s local government center.

Rizzo had asked audience members if they had an example of a “wicked” public issue, and Blechinger said he had mentioned the seven municipalities in the Boyceville fire district and their intent to build a new fire station.

The point of Rizzo’s presentation is that public engagement is a planning tool for projects, and municipalities should have a plan in place for engaging the public when issues come up.

“I asked if he would be willing to help us put together a plan, and Rizzo said ‘yes’ he would be willing,” Blechinger said, adding that Rizzo indicated he would be happy to come to Boyceville to speak to the fire board about developing  a strategy.

Having the facts together is extremely important for approaching the public, Blechinger said.

When asked what the cost would be for Rizzo to provide his services to the fire district, Rizzo said his services are free because it is his job to help towns and villages engage with the public, Blechinger said.

Krueger said he appreciated that Rizzo’s services would be free to the fire district  and said the fire district should look into taking advantage of Rizzo’s offer to work with the fire district.

Audit

Brian Marlette, fire chief, reported that the Boyceville Community Fire Department had passed the annual fire prevention audit.

Rick Sommerfeld, the fire chief in Cadott, had done the audit and said all fire departments should have the audit once each year, he said.

Marlette said in his years as fire chief, this is the first time someone has done an audit to make sure the Boyceville fire department is following state procedures.

The audit checked on procedures for reports, meeting records, minutes of meetings and training records, he said.

The Boyceville fire department has a couple of items to complete to bring the department into full compliance, such as holding blood borne pathogen training once a year and testing ladders once each year.

“All is well. It was a good meeting. We are in compliance,” Marlette said.

Thank you

Marlette also reported that the Boyceville Community Fire District had received a check for $200 from Jean McIntyre in memory of Doug McIntyre because Doug was a charter member of the Boyceville fire department.

Ambulance

The meeting of the Boyceville Community Ambulance District, which directly followed the fire district meeting, was short due to the fact that Matt Feeney, ambulance director, was unable to attend.

The ambulance district board had planned to adopt a payroll policy, but adopting the policy is difficult without the payroll administrator at the meeting, Krueger said.

Feeney would act as the payroll administrator.

The Boyceville ambulance district approved a motion to postpone action on the payroll policy until the next meeting in November.

Next

The Boyceville Community Fire District meets next on November 11 at 6:30 p.m.

The Boyceville Community Ambulance District will meet next on November 11 immediately following the fire district meeting.