Lebanon Fire Chief John Tacy reported they are inspecting two stations that are showing signs of roof leakage.
During the Lebanon Fire District Board meeting on Jan. 13, Tacy provided an update on a known leak at Station 34 on Weirich Drive. A company looked at the leak and reported findings of moisture, mildew and rot due to an improper install.
The company believes that, with some changes to the roof, they can get another two or three years of life, but not the guaranteed life. LFD also recently repaired a leak from siding at that station.
A more recent discovery was reported after the district inadvertently stumbled upon a leak on the roof of the new Station 31 facility on Oak Street. They are looking into what steps to take next on the matter.
FY 2025 audit
Auditors from Accuity, LLC presented their report for FY 2025. In short, CPA Kori Sarrett said there were no findings and “everything was good.”
The governmental funds (everything but ambulance) end-of-year report went $2 million in carryover. About $1.1 million of that is available, while the rest is restricted for various purposes.
They reported the General Fund had a loss of about $60,000 for the year. The end fund balance is sitting at about 18% of the prior year’s operating expenses. According to Sarrett, they like to see about 15%, “so you’re right at that level for general funds.”
The Ambulance Fund ended the year with a negative carryover of $76,000.
Ambulance had over a $300,000 loss for the year.
“Charges for services that you know what you can charge and collect is just not keeping up with expenses on the ambulance side,” she said.
Including capital assets and debt payments, there’s an overall decrease of $851,000 for the entire district. Of that, $520,000 was from ambulance.
“So when we added the depreciation, it doesn’t get any better,” Sarrett said.
The auditors said the report was “way better” (smoother, quicker) this year because the district switched to a cash basis accounting system, and because Chief Administrative Officer Desiree Barker provided a lot of information in advance.
Website updates
Barker reported that Ashley Rodondi, a web developer, has been “working hard” on the district’s new website, more recently working to build a payment system online. Once active, it will allow people to subscribe to FireMed online and make payments on an auto renewal service.
But it will also assist the district’s upcoming online “shop.” Once opened, residents will be able to purchase items from the district, such as mugs, stickers, challenge coins, shirts… whatever the district decides to offer.
Another new change to the district is the live-streaming of the board meetings on YouTube. This meeting was the second one to be aired on the district’s YouTube page, which also offers other videos of interest.
In addition to informative videos, the district started rolling out “Fire Cam” videos last year, which show some of the calls they respond to.
In other business:
- The board scheduled a workshop to go over a number of subjects such as reviewing what each division leader does, finish SWAT training, and discuss the future of LFD.
- Desiree reported they’ve received 91% of expected tax revenue. Ambulance billing receivables “has not been much,” Tactical Business Group (an EMS billing service) have 1,350 unpaid claims totalling $1.5 million, so they’re collecting and it’s starting to come in; LFD is now seeing an 8% increase over what they’ve seen in previous years.
- Tacy reported a new law is now in effect putting the district under temporary rules for balanced billing, essentially ensuring that patients only pay in-network rates and not get overcharged for ground ambulance services.
- Per SB454, Tacy was seated on an advisory committee that will review revenues of rural fire service districts and give advice to the governor on funding.
- The district is trying to get Fitzwater on an annual service area recommendation committee through OHA, which Tacy believes is an important committee to be part of as “it looks like interfacility transfers are part of what’s going to be looked at for the annual service areas.”
- The board held an executive session to discuss labor negotiations.