Health, Welfare & Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

All

[clears throat] right, I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is our monthly health, welfare, recreation meeting at 6 o'clock, December 18th, 2025. and um call this meeting to order. Taking the role, we have everybody here. Tim Morris is absent. So that being said, I'll entertain a motion to approve this agenda. I'll make that motion. Motion made by Dwight Miller. Second. Second by Jackie Duncan. All in favor of approval of the agenda say I. I. Let's have it.

All right. Public comments. Any [clears throat] public comments? None. Being none, we'll move on down to uh approval modify of the minutes. Minutes on the back page. Rosanne got them in does a great job. So, look over those minutes and I'll make the motion that we approve. Motion by Dwight. Approval of the minutes. Second by Jackie Duncan. All in favor of approval of the minutes say I.

Eyes have it. All right, getting down to business. Our old business. Um Tim Morris is not here tonight. Uh I think he had some info. He was coming with us on on some rule water thing. So we'll have to put that off till January. I still have a question. Okay. For the committee. [clears throat] I think the last thing passed here was to approve the 35,000 or whatever. Correct. I would like for us to reconsider that because it's going to come up before the full commission.

When you say reconsider, do you mean as a committee? Reconsider make continuing with that approval of approval of the 30 something thousand. I was talking about maybe not approving. Okay. Well, state that differently. [snorts] Do you want to make a [clears throat] motion to reconsider?

I would. I'd like to make a motion that we reconsider. And I know Tim's not here, so it's going to be hard to do, but we're gonna We had told the commission the month before and now the next time that we would move forward with that, but uh I'm still thinking it's a bad idea. So, my motion is that we do not go forward with the 35,000 and recommend to the full commission we're not pushing it anymore. Um, I I have a before we before we do that, I got a I have a question to ask the committee. [snorts]

Being Tim was Tim was the rule he was kind of the sponsor of that. Do you think we should have Tim here or does that make any difference? Well, that's what I said. I I would not want to do it except for the fact that last month we told the commission we're going to put it off to the next month and push it on and we're going to run out of time. We're not going to have another meeting. Um, I think that I would second that. I agree with that. It's it's kind of we've run out of time and uh if we don't do something, it's going to go before the full commission as

as a recommendation, which I don't agree with. We would like to recg agree with the reconsideration of that. I re I agree with that reconsideration. How about you, Mr. Duncan? any agreement. Okay. Well, I'll entertain. If you want to make a motion, I'll entertain a motion. Okay. I thought I did, but Okay. Go ahead and state it. [clears throat] Then I make a motion that this committee uh forward to the full commission that we have reconsidered uh the last thing we sent them about $35,000 uh approving. So my recommendation is that we withdraw the recommendation of the 35,000.

So Roseanne's going to document that. We need a we need a second [clears throat] on that. I think both of them did. I think Roseanne did and then Jackie did.

Okay. How am I stating that? Withdraw the recommendation. of the $35,000 that this committee had forwarded to the full commission for the uh water project. Um I will say I wasn't at that meeting and I I wouldn't have voted for it. So I'm good with this. So who's the second coming from? was coming from you, Jackie. That was coming from her. Come from me. Okay. Roseanne seconds that. [snorts]

All in favor of that motion say I. I. Okay. Motion passes. That's [clears throat] to be reconsidered.

[snorts]

Give her just a second here. Let her finish filling this paperwork out.

[clears throat] [snorts]

I'm almost done. Okay. Okay. So, I guess it means we need to talk to the mayor about his agenda. Does everybody sign it? Is that how it goes?

Make sure I did that. Stand up.

All right. [cough and clears throat] Moving on from Rural Water. Uh Craig's here with animal control. Craig, you want to come up and update us on going homes?

[snorts] I didn't have time to make any copies of anything or last house was pretty rough, so I had to go home and change. So, um, [snorts] uh, this month right now, we're 88 animals entered the shelter. Let's see. Eight were adopted, six were reclaimed, 86 were transferred to rescues, uh, five euthanas, and we brought in about $1,800.

Is that because it's Christmas time or That's more than what you got last time, wasn't it? As far as what? $1,800. No, we've been we've been actually averaging a little more. We've had um more money called in straight to the vet this month than we have brought into the shelter. We've had a couple medical cases that were pretty pretty expensive and people have been calling straight into the vets's office. So great. Yeah, we've actually got in the negative right now at the vets office which is good. So So the 88 animals is that new animals this month?

Yeah. So then 86 were transferred out and 80 and eight were adopted. So that's Yeah. eight were adopted, six were reclaimed. Okay. Six reclaimed then we had five had euthanized five and we had one die at the vet. So what's your balance? What's the balance? What how many do you have in there right now in the in the animal in Oh, at the shelter right now. We're actually down. We've been working our butts off. We're probably 40 to 50 right now.

Yeah, we were at one point we were like 70 or 80 there, but we've really really worked our butts off and got the numbers down, which is good for the winter time. That way we don't have as many outside and the Yeah. Last time I was there it was warm weather and Yes. looked like you had a bunch. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. [clears throat] Then this year's total this year so far is 985 brought into the shelter year to date. Yeah. And I don't think that's including our last house today had to do with cats and we don't have those logged in yet. So [snorts] I think there's five there that we got to try to round up.

How's the How's the fleet doing? The trucks all in still pretty decent shape. Yeah, the we're having a hiccup with the F350. Something to figure out there with the the battery keeps dying. There's a short somewhere. So, got to figure that out. The Dodge, of course, it's limping along, but it it don't have much life left in it. And then still waiting on the new truck, I don't know where we're at with it. And then our the 17 model, our newest one, it's about about 210,000 on it right now. Still runs good, but it's a lot of miles, so I don't know how much more we'll get out of it. Gotcha. What brand is that one? Ford. It's F150.

Holding up pretty well. Yeah, it's been a good truck. We haven't had any I think a water pump and that's about the It's been a good truck. That's why the new one is just going to be a new model of that truck. So, we've had some good luck out of it. So, are y'all counting down the days till you get into the new shelter? Yes, big time. Do you know the date? Um the meeting this week, their projected date is beginning of March sometime, but they're hoping after the holidays, the building's going up right now, the metal building part. They're hoping they can consolidate that down some. So potentially we could be in there in February. I'm hoping. How long is it going to take you to move?

That's going to be a process moving and then figuring out functioning in the new building. That's probably going to take a couple weeks to get everything ironed out to where we're running smooth. It's um we're going from an office smaller than that open area right there to actually having the facility to work out of. I would think it wouldn't take long to move at all because it was so small.

Yeah, we got storage buildings outside that's full of everything and all the outdoor candles are about to be broke down and cleaned before we get them over there. So, um And we've even had to rent a storage unit this week to start storing all of our dog food there. So, we've got stuff stroed everywhere right now.

So, can through your current um [clears throat] staff, is that adequate enough to to do everything you need to do or you have to bring in somebody from outside to help? I mean, that's what we talked about last meeting, but I um would like to add somebody to be able to man the phones and enter data in the computer and stuff like that. That's that's our biggest complaint right now. And we there's nothing I can do about the phone cuz some of the calls like the one that I ended the day on, we were gone for about three hours and it took everybody. So,

but as far as physical [snorts] equipment and everything, you need help with that or equipment wise, I we'll just have to see once we get in there. We should have most which we don't have desk and all that stuff. I mean, we're going to have to all we've got in office right now is just one of the standup desk. That's all we've got that and one filing cabinet. I know we talked about last month um you're getting a full-time employee and we was going to come back tonight with a a recommendation to budget and finance to see if they had the money for the employee. Yeah. So, I'm just going to leave it up to to the to this committee. So, I know I know Tim he said he was going to look into that, but he's he was going to have us some information today

so this committee can kind of based on the fact that Tim is not here, I'd like to make a motion that it be put off to January meeting. That'll give him time to be here and and get more information. I don't know that we even need a motion, but No way. Either way, I think we might need a motion. Okay, I'll second it. [clears throat] Motion by Roxan to put this off to the January meeting. Second by Dwight Miller. It didn't reflect in the minutes that we had taken any action anyway. Right. I know I didn't write that down. So, all in favor of putting this off till January meeting,

say. So, we'll get we'll get on that in January. Okay, that's fine. Before you leave, you said your last call took everybody and it was three hours. Can you kind of go through how that what that looked like? Well, basically, I don't want to give too many. The house was condemned. Okay. Um, yeah. Don't give out any personal information. Just What does that look like? How many people was everybody? And well, I've got four. And what were you dealing with?

We basically had to It was cats, which you don't typically deal with, but when it's an animal cruelty type situation, you know, we which we already made plans. We had places for these cats to go, but this house was it it was bad. I mean, you couldn't step anywhere in the thing without stepping in cat feces and stuff, but um it was basically just stroed with furniture and everything. We're having to search for these cats. We couldn't stay in there very long. So, we kind No, we kind of had to rotate the ammonia level in there was it was unsafe. So, was someone living there?

They were. They it was an older person got put in the hospital and that's how we found out about. So they there was somebody living in that. How many cats were there? Just five but Oh, okay. Yeah. How long have they been unattended? I mean like weeks I think they right before Thanksgiving is when that person had to be brought somewhere else. So they'd been in there for a little bit, but the conditions were prior to Yeah. [snorts] Yeah. So, but we had to we had to rotate. We didn't need to stand there very long. Go out, get some fresh air and kind of So, and it ate up a little bit of time. Do you have a respirator or anything?

No, we we don't unfortunat Yeah, because we some of our hoarding cases, I mean, they're the ammonia levels. It's not safe. Understand? Yes. Goodness gracious. Yeah, it's bad. And cats are going to go hide because they don't know you. Yes. And that was the problem. We found two out of the five. We had to leave traps inside the house. So, we have to go back tomorrow to try to finish up. Okay. Yeah. I've been in situations that smell like that. So, yes. That's why you don't need to be there much. No. No. That's why I had to go home. I didn't print paper. I had to go. Y'all, we appreciate that. Yes. You You trust me. You Yeah, it was bad. Okay. All right, Craig. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. And merry Christmas.

All right. [clears throat] Moving on from animal control to rural fire. Uh next up will be Hillsboro Fire and we have uh Chief Elect. Is that correct? Stand yours. Put you on the spot.

Well, Jimmy, what would you like to know? What's your name? Melissa Carter. Melissa Carter. Mhm. Yeah. So, Melissa, you've just you've you've just been elected to be the new fire chief. Is that correct? Starting January. Correct. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Do we have uh did you have other officers, new people elected to other spots, too? Yes. Assistant chief, captain, lieutenant. Everybody's pretty fresh this year. So, it's going to be interesting. It's a good group, though. Well, we kind we we kind of work this where every month a different department comes up. They kind of give us a departmental review. Okay.

We kind of we work with you on the smoke detectors and just a lot of advertisement because you're on the air now. So, everything you say and people can know get it out there and go with it. So, okay. Any what's your what's plan? What's what's your what do you see the department going in? What direction? What do you want to do?

That is a good question. [laughter] Uh I know Anthony had a lot of projects he was wanting to get done and we're gonna complete some of his goals and I don't know, we'll just see what the future holds. Uh we got a good group of young people want to get a lot of training done and uh some additional fundraisers this year maybe. Yeah. See how many do you have that will show up? that are that you can depend on. Yes. A handful. Handful. Like five or six on a good day. Maybe a dozen. Maybe two handfuls. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah.

So, how every year do you have an election for a new fire chief? Is that how it goes? Yes, we have election where the members of the department vote for who they would like to see in the leadership roles. Okay. I guess um far as experience you I mean you got quite a bit experience. Can you tell us a little about it? What all you how long you've been doing it and I have actually been on the department about 24 years. Wow. Yeah. I grew up in it. So you must have been about six. Yes. Absolutely. [laughter] [snorts]

Absolutely. Yeah. Been around it a long time. So, well, we appreciate you willing to volunteer your time uh to help your fellow community citizens. That's very commendable. Thank you. Any more questions for Melissa, Melissa? We like you said, we're we're proud to have you board. be calling you a couple times, probably a couple times a year, just tell us what you got going on. We try to help out all we can. We're kind of, you know, we're big in the smoke detector. Yes.

program. So, think you got to do 12 of them and which probably [clears throat] no problem at all for y'all, I'm sure. No, we've been pretty busy with a smoke detector. So, got what's what's your plans for uh what do you what do you want to try to purchase with their with your 41,000 this year? You got any ideas? Not yet. Not yet. No, I don't know. I think uh Anthony and some of them had already talked about a few plans. So, we're still getting together and trying to set goals and get a get a plan intact. So, okay. Anything ever just just reach out to us or give us a call and anything we can do. We all we we love to help volunteer fire department. So,

Okay. Would you care to give out your number or do you want to give it to me later? I can later. Yeah. All right. Jimmy's got it. So, okay. All right. Jimmy's got it. I'll get it from him. Yeah. All right. Melissa, we appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. All right. Uh staying along with our rural fire. We got Michael back from Sumville. He's got to update because you know last month they had the wreck with the fire truck and he's going to update us on uh on the injuries that we had and the replacement of the truck that was wrecked. So Michael, go ahead.

All right. So the uh driver went today. He had his follow-up appointment. He is healing properly. So we're not looking at surgery. The placement of the truck. Myself and Captain Strange traveled to Yale, Michigan last weekend and looked at a rig. Um, the rig is immaculate. Looked like it come off of a showroom floor. We did make the purchase. We will have it sometime around the new year. And that was a new pumper. It's a pumper tanker. Yeah. Um, it's not brand It's going to be new to us. It's a 2001, but it only has 18,000 miles. Y'all saw some pictures of it. It's a good looking truck. I don't even think it's even broke in good. No,

it's only got 18,000 miles. Mhm. Did you get in any of that weather? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I thought so. It was cold. Where did you say you had to travel to? Yale, Michigan. And did you drive up there? Yes. And did someone pay your way up there or did you pay your own way? I'm just curious. Department covered the fuel. Okay. But it it was your time and Yes. and we uh he and I both worked all day and then drove all night to be there for a meeting with them the next morning. A lot of people don't realize what you all sacrifice for what you do and again we appreciate everything that you you do to take care of our community and it should be

What kind [clears throat] of truck is it? It is a 2001 Freight Liner Ferrar. It's a 1250 pump, 1250 tank, uh, top mount pump, onboard, PTO generator. So, crew cab, we could be able to haul five personnel. Um, did your insurance pay for all of it? Yes. Um, we're actually finishing that up now. We had to get all the documentation. So, the insurance is sending our check for the wreck. Would do you mind telling the Do you mind telling the public what you paid for the truck? Uh we gave $60,000 for this truck. Wow, that's cheap. Yeah,

that's cheap. They were asking 70 and the way this truck come up for sales. The department was shut down. Oh, I was wondering. Yeah, the fire department got shut down. Um, the department that took it over purchased just about all the equipment, purchased their ladder truck, but did not per did not need that rig. So, just just so everybody knows, new fire trucks usually cost over a million dollars. Oh, yes. Good job on being thrifty. And I'm curious, how do you find fire? Is there a hotline for fire?

There's a there's Brenley Mountain. They're a firet truck broker. Um there's one called Garage. Um there's Fenton Fire, there's Red Line, there's uh there's so many of them out there. It's just hours of sitting and searching and finding and then buying it when you see it when it comes available. When it comes available and and making sure it'll work for our department. Mhm. This truck is narrower than the one that was wrecked. So, it's a little bit not as wide, better. Well, especially on Ragdale Road, it's narrow. Ragdol, you get out in Fountain Grove. Fountain Grove is just as bad.

Um, a lot of these little back roads are just, it don't matter the size of the truck. It could happen at any time. just have to try and adjust and be re avoid it as best as possible. And um to be clear, everybody that was injured in that accident is healing. Yes. Well, somebody was going to have long-term Yeah. recovery. Is that the driver? The driver. Yes, he is still in recovery. He goes back the 26th of January for another appointment. The doctor did release him today to be able to start driving. Um, the passengers already been released by the doctors and returned to normal duty. Okay, good.

I'm glad they're all okay. Yeah, because that could have been a lot worse than what it was. [snorts] Yes. All righty, Michael. We appreciate the update. Appreciate you coming in. Thank you, Michael. New to you. All right, committee. Any new business? I don't have any new business. I don't have any being none, we'll move on to setting a date, time, and date for the new year, 2026 January. I'm looking at January 22nd on a Thursday night. I'm okay.

Okay. Okay. So, let's shoot for the 22nd, 6 PM back here. So that being said, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment. I'll make that move, Mr. Miller. Second, a motion forjourment, second by Mr. Duncan. All in favor of adjournment, say I. I have it. Thanks everybody for coming and see you next month. Thank y'all for coming. I need to take a picture of that. See, that's what I didn't have when I did the minutes.