Central Fire & EMS re-elects board officers

The officers of the Central Fire and EMS board will remain the same following the April 6 elections.

Chairman Larry Oehmichen was reelected at the board’s April 15 meeting, and so was vice-chairman Pat Tischendorf and treasurer Nancy O’Brien.

Election of board officers was one of the only agenda items that required a vote at the district’s latest meeting. The only nominations were for those already holding the three officer positions.

The overall membership of the board has not changed following the elections, with each of the seven municipalities retaining their same representative.

In addition to Oehmichen from the town of Colby, Tischendorf from Holton and O’Brien from the city of Colby, the board also consists of Abbotsford Mayor Jim Weix, Hull chairman Mitch Gumz, Mayville chairman Dennis Engel and Dorchester trustee Tom Carter.

_ The board approved $20,169 in monthly bills and also approved a transfer of $100,000 from the district’s checking account into a money market account in order to earn more interest.

_ During his monthly report, district chief Joe Mueller told the board that several recent barn fires have been handled well using mutual aid and a box alarm system that draws resources from other departments. During one of those fires, he said the department pumped 135,000 gallons of water but never had to wait for refills because of all the tankers providing assistance.

_ Mueller told the board about search and rescue smoke training the district plans to do at a vacant, city-owned house along STH 13 in Colby. He said the eventual plan is to do a controlled burn of the house in September.

“We’ll get all the training out of it we can,” he said.

Firefighters also plan on doing emergency response propane training at the Abbotsford fire station on May 19. The Medford Co-op is providing free propane for the training, which is expected to create some larger-sized flames.

_ Mueller said several tanker loads of water were recently hauled to a local farmer whose cleaning system for a freestyle barn had run dry, along with the pond he uses as a backup.

“He was desperate so we helped him out,” Mueller said, noting that the farmer was billed for the water.

_ The district responded to a total of 53 ambulance calls and four fire calls between March 18 and April 15, according to the monthly chief’s report.