A tractor trailer rollover wreck in December led the Noel City Council to change a department policy at the council's Jan. 13 meeting.
During his monthly report on the activities of the Noel Fire Department, Chief Brandon Barrett was asked if he had sent a bill to a company that had a tractor trailer wreck on Main Street in December 2014.
The wreck required several members of the fire department be on scene for about 10 hours for traffic control while the messed created by the spilled grain hauler.
Barrett told the council that a policy was instituted "years and years ago" that the fire department was not to bill for any calls inside the city limits. Barrett said the fire department does not charge dues to city residents and no bills are sent for any calls inside the city limits.
Mayor John Lafley said he would like to see the fire department be able to recoup its costs on wrecks that do not involve city residents. He suggested that wrecks involving commercial vehicles would be subject for billing of expenses by the fire department.
Barrett said he had no problem with billing for those accidents, it was just the policy adopted by a previous council not to charge for anything inside the city.
The council agreed to amend the policy for the fire department to bill for wrecks in the city limits involving tractor trailers only in order to recoup for its time and expenses.
Barrett noted the fire department did receive a reimbursement of about $4,000 for another call, which he said will cover the cost of having a vehicle repaired. He said an ambulance recent purchased broke a pulley, which caused a belt to come off and ended up causing a hole to be knocked in the engine. He said it was $2,900 for the vehicle to be repaired.
In an ongoing dispute with the city of Lanagan regarding an electric bill at a fire station in Lanagan, Lafley discussed a letter that was sent to Lanagan from Roscoe Miller, city attorney. Lafley said Miller stated the council had voted not to pay for electric charges at the Lanagan station that were incurred before the meter was switched over to the Noel Fire Department and that Noel is also requesting any fire dues submitted to Lanagan be forwarded to Noel.
The Noel Fire Department has provided fire protection for the city of Lanagan since the city was forced to shut down its fire department due to the lack of finances.
Code Books
The council discussed updating the city's building code books. Lafley said it is time to update the code book and he suggested switching from B.O.C.A. (Building Officials and Code Administrators) to International Building Codes.
The council discussed costs of online versions of the codes versus bound or loose leaf versions. Lafley noted the current city ordinances require the city to have three copies of the code books. He said if the council would change the ordinance to require only one set, the city could save about $1,000.
The council agreed to change the ordinance to require only one set of the books and then to purchase a loose leaf set for about $450.
Other Business
In other business, the council:
• heard that a starter is out of one of the city's patrol cars and that the alternator/generator on the marshal department's Hummer needs work;
• was told by Rusty DeMoss that he is going to break the city up into 14-15 sections for nuisance abatement purposes;
• noted revenue of $73,861.24 and expenses of $67,615.66 for the month of December.
General News on 01/15/2015