Okay, good morning, everyone.

I'd like to begin uh and call this meeting to order.

Today is March 3rd, and this is the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District meeting.

So thank you for your patience as we got settled.

Um, Madam Clerk, uh let's start with agenda item number one.

My apologies.

And I've asked Raul, um, our trusted friend from Allied Security to lead us in the pledge today.

Of the United States of America, and the Republic for which stands for nation under God and individual with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Raul.

Madam Clerk.

Uh Chair Andreola is absent for the moment.

Vice Chair Garcia here.

Commissioner uh Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Clark.

Present.

Commissioner Herman.

Present.

Fire Chief Edwards.

Here.

DA Jennifer Gustapson.

Present.

Madam, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I'll turn it over to item number three, Chief.

All right, item number three is public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the Board of Fire Commissioners agenda.

However, action may not be taken on any manner raised during this public comment period until the matter is specifically listed on an agenda as an action item.

The board will also hear public comment during individual action items with comment limited to three minutes per person.

Comments are to be made to the Board of Fire Commissioners as a whole.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Do we have I'm sorry?

Carl Overmeyer.

And I do have documents to distribute for Mr.

Overmeyer.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Good morning.

Thank you for your time.

I'm going to give you some documents that uh has come to my light in the last couple weeks.

First and foremost, when you're looking at these things, I've been a resident of Washoe County for almost 30 years.

I came here from California with a very successful business, which I tried to incorporate into Reno area.

I just want to express as a community and to this board.

When you review these documents, here comes the bureaucratic creep.

Okay.

You folks are welcome to look at this document that I provided you.

I've been at that residence for almost five years conducting two businesses.

And here we go.

New fire chief, new set of rules.

Along with a bill.

Washoe County is a great community.

Expiring for a lot of growth.

I'd like all of you, commissioners, to keep in mind that bureaucratic creep will kill your community.

If you need more money to provide the services, don't try to beat up on businesses.

Raise the taxes on property.

Find another area for the revenue.

These fire people are great people.

They're much needed, but you don't continually punish business.

I own that property.

Get penalized for just trying to operate a business.

And why you would try to keep driving them out like the great state of California has done for 30 plus years.

Don't fall into that trap.

Please.

With ideals and ideas that I think.

Thank you.

And Chief, if we can have staff maybe look into that a little bit for us, that'd be great.

There's nobody else signed in.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We'll close item number three and move into item number four.

Chief.

All right.

Item number four is commissioners or fire chief's announcements.

Requests for information and topics for future future agendas.

There's no discussion among commissioners will take place on this item.

Do you have any announcements, Chief?

I do not.

Okay.

I'll start with uh Commissioner Herman.

Right.

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Uh I got a call from Mr.

Overmeyer yesterday of all days, just the day before we have a fire uh commission meeting.

Uh he told me his story.

He's been there for a number of years, four or five years.

He's been in the state for some 30 years.

Uh he's conducted business from there.

And uh I just thought it was odd that uh they would go out and re-inspect a business and re and complain about his signage, complain about his address.

I mean, he should have been grandfathered in.

He's been there for a number of years.

I understand when we when someone first opens a business, you want to go in and inspect and make sure everything's good to go.

But just to go out and uh you know, randomly uh go back and and uh inspect somebody who thinks they're they're uh on the right track and doing the right thing, and then present him with a bill.

I just I just found this uh uh hard for as he explained in his own words, hard for uh business people to understand why this is happening.

This county's got some 30,000 businesses in the county.

Some of them are in Reno, some of them are in Spark, some of them are in the county, but there's 30,000 opportunities to go out and reinspect.

Is that what we're doing?

Is that is that what we're gonna do with this?

Is uh reinspect everybody?

Uh he was told by whoever inspected that somebody else had dropped the ball in the past and probably way before our current uh fire chief was was here working for us.

But why is he being penalized and why is he being singled out?

And how many other folks that own businesses are being singled out and penalized by this?

He's the one that uh uh had the uh had the time and the energy to come in and present this to us.

And rarely do we get this type of uh public comment at the fire board, but uh I think it needs to be looked at.

And thank you, uh uh Chair, for asking the staff to look into this.

This is a problem, and uh, I'll be in touch with Mr.

Overmeyer to follow up on this and make sure that uh this is handled correctly.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Clark.

Um, Commissioner Chair Andreola is um running late today.

She's at an event, so she asked me to step in for her as she makes her way over.

Um, but she wanted me to during this item thank uh Chief Edwards and staff for putting together uh two flyers that have been circulating at the cab meetings.

Um they are really nice overviews of the statistics, and what she really liked and wanted me to communicate is that not only are they um passed out at the cab meetings, but they're really easy to uh share on social media and email as well.

So it's a great way to stay in communication about um with the public about the great work that Chucky Meadows Fire Protection District is doing.

So that's on behalf of uh Chair Andreola.

Any other comments before we move on?

All right, let's close out item number four and move into item number five, Chief.

All right, item number five is consent items for possible possible action.

Uh a recommendation.

Um there any items yeah, um, commissioners, are there any items from the consent agenda that you would wish to pull for further discussion?

All right, seeing in hearing none.

Um, Madam Clerk, uh is there any public comment?

There's nobody signed in.

Great.

Um, I'm looking for a motion.

So moved.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I've got a motion to and a second.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Moving on to item number six.

All right.

Item number six is a badge pinning and employee introductions.

And Madam Vice Chair, if you don't mind, I'm gonna join the rest of the team down at the podium.

Sounds good.

All right.

Uh there we go.

Good morning.

For the record, Joe Shum, Division Chief Operations for Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue.

Privileged today to stand before you and recognize five individuals that have completed their probationary year.

So today we're we're proud to recognize and welcome these five firefighters to the TM family as they complete this final step on their probationary journey.

They began their journey in October of 2024, completing an intense and demanding 18-week fire academy, followed by two weeks of focused indoctrination into Truckie Meadows Fire.

From there, they continue to learn and grow and sharpen their skills throughout a 365-day probationary period, having completed that milestone on February 24th, 2026.

So today marks in a significant moment in their careers as they are pinned with personalized bazes by their family members.

So without uh further ado, we'll start.

Uh could I have Corey Ackerman and his badge pinner come forward, please.

Corey joined Truckee Meadows Fire after serving four years in the United States Air Force, which was followed by working for Remza for two and a half years and also serving with the Truckee California Fire Department for a year, where his brother also works.

Corey is a paramedic with the district.

His mother, Kathy Dwyer, is present to pin his badge today.

Next will be Brock Harmon.

Brock was born and raised in Palo Alto, California.

Before coming to Truckee Meadows Fire, he spent some time in Oregon working on a type two hand crew before becoming a lass in hot shot for five years in California.

Brock began his career with Truckee Meadows in March of 2023 by working as a part of our Mount Rose hand crew in the wildland division.

He worked there for over a year and a half before transitioning to the fire and EMS operations divisions.

He is pinned today by his wife Lindsay.

Congratulations.

Next we have Kyle Harris.

Worked as a CrossFit instructor and worked for Remza for three years, where he started as an EMT and then eventually became a paramedic.

Today Kyle is pinned by his girlfriend Caroline Kimpsroater.

All right.

Next we have Riley Retzer.

Riley is a fourth generation of Adam, graduating from Spanish Springs High School.

Riley served as a North Lion Fire Reserve for two years and graduated the Remsa Paramedic program before joining Truckee Meadows Fire.

She has the pleasure of working with her older brother Bo, who's an engineer for the district.

And we really want to ensure that she understands or that Riley wants to ensure her parents and fiance Mariah know that she could not have done this without their support.

Pinned today by Fiancé Mariah.

Okay, Thomas Witsman.

Thomas came to Truckee Meadows Fire from the Wildland World, where he worked for NDF Hill Attack for two years, Black Mountain Hotshots for two years, and then was hired by Truckee Meadows Fire in 2021 as a part of our Mount Rose Hand Crew and Wildland Division.

Thomas served on the crew for three years before transitioning to the fire and EMS operations divisions.

He has a bachelor's degree from UNR in biology and is an advanced EMT and holding numerous other wildland certifications.

Thomas could not have done this without the support of girlfriend Jessica Wolf, who pinned his badge today.

All right.

Jay Sweak, Division Chief Logistics and Fleet Divisions for Trucking Meadows Fire.

Any large army or organization can't go very far unless they have the support to do so.

And that's what we do at the logistics division.

We're very small division in numbers, but we have a large impact on the organization.

So I'd like to invite down uh James and Kevin, please.

When you mention the word firefighter, most people imagine the individual running out of a smoke-filled doorway with an axe in one hand and a baby in another.

None of our firefighters would be able to do what they do in the heat of the moment without the support from people like James Flynn.

James graduated from ACAACT in 2020 and immediately was hired next door at Remsa Health as a logistics coordinator.

For four years, he was only expected to do one primary task supply the paramedic ambulances that traverse our region with the equipment they need to save lives.

But James didn't stop there.

He expanded his knowledge and his skills without asking, repairing patient gurneys, establishing an infield resupply stations at local hospitals, and creating efficiencies in the Runza Warehouse.

Since hiring over a year ago at TM, James's enthusiasm and his work ethic has made its mark throughout our organization.

After our deliveries to our stations, supplying our largest fires with foods for hundreds of personnel at a time, and decontaminating our firefighters' PPE and our new laundry facility.

Account for just some of the duties that he does on a daily basis.

That's amazing.

Let's give it up for our new logistics supply specialist.

So with that, I'd like to invite up uh our new fire marshal, Jenny Williamson.

We can give her a round of applause.

Jenny comes to us with more than 20 years experience in fire prevention.

Um she most recently served at the state uh fire marshal's office as a plans reviewer.

Um and she was selected as our fire marshal through a competitive uh recruitment process.

So we're very fortunate to have her.

And I know uh she's gonna do wonderful things for the district and be an incredible leader uh to our fire inspectors as well.

So with that, welcome to Jenny Williamson.

Thank you.

Uh I just like to say thank you, and I appreciate this opportunity, and I look forward to hopefully doing some really great things with our fire prevention bureau.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

And I'd also like to invite up uh a couple members of our finance team uh that work under our CFO uh Crystal Subblet.

Um, if I can invite up Simona Parton, who is our account and payroll specialist, and our account uh accountants receivable and grant specialist Rachel McFarland.

Uh both of these women here have recently completed their probation, um, and they do very important jobs for our organization.

Um Simona oversees all of our payroll, um, which you know, as we uh everyone comes to work for their paychecks, uh, make sure that those are accurate.

Um, she has uh an incredible amount of work to do there, does a fine job with it, and so we're very happy to have Simona.

So welcome, Simona.

And our grant specialist and accounts receivable, Rachel McFarland, uh, just completed probation as well.

Um she's responsible for all of our billing back to our our state and federal partners for our HMGP, um, our wildland billing, our off-district billing, and so forth.

So she works very closely with our our state uh Office of Emergency Management and our NDF partners and our federal U.S.

Forest Service folks as well.

So she helps to make sure that we uh get paid for all those fires that we we respond to, not just within the county, but outside of the jurisdiction as well, all across the United States.

In fact, we just had uh a resource coming back from Texas right now that we're helping with uh pre-positioning for wildfires down there.

So she'll help to make sure that all those uh expenses are recovered and and brought back to the district as well.

So, two very important people that I wanted to introduce you to uh this morning and and welcome to the TM family.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

And I think we'll just take a quick short uh recess so that we can take a photo and then we'll resume here shortly.

Fantastic, thank you.

All right, we'll call the meeting back to order.

Thank you so much, everybody, for coming down today and and celebrating those milestones with us.

Uh, we will close out item six.

It's a non-action item, so we'll move into item number seven.

Chief.

All right.

Item seven is a wildland division report on fuels management with the twenty twenty-five response data and an overview of the twenty twenty-six fire season.

And with that, I'd like to pass it off to Chief Eisenhagen.

All right, good morning.

Uh for the record, August Eisenagan.

I'm division chief with Truckie Meadows Fire and Rescue over the Wildland Fire and Fuels Management Division.

I am joined today by Don Johnson, a guest from the weather service, as we start talking about what we're looking at in terms of the 2026 season.

She's gonna jump in.

We have a presentation up.

Uh, I was asked to kind of combine three different elements here.

Number one, a year in review of what the wild land division has been up to, oftentimes they're behind the scenes.

Two recap the twenty twenty-five season locally and across the country, and then segue that into what we're looking at for 2026.

So we will dive in.

I'll go back really quick.

Um, the sl the presentation has pictures throughout it.

This picture in the background here was our rancho fire up between Silver Knolls and Rancho Haven in August of last year.

So diving into the last uh calendar year 2025.

Uh we start with our volunteers.

The volunteers is a subordinate program to the wildland division.

So some quick numbers.

What we looked at last year had sixty-five volunteer days committed to incident, 51 volunteer training days completed, and 14 new volunteers onboarded.

And these are pictures of our volunteers last year, both uh as we do our refresher training in the spring, which will be starting this month, um, and and as well on incidents that we had last summer.

I believe that is the P Vine fire on the bottom right.

Current numbers, what we're looking at for volunteers and their respective locations.

We have two operational volunteers in Gurlach.

Uh, we have two or three additional that are in on the in the onboarding process right now.

As everybody's aware, we took Gurlach back this year, and we're getting them locked in loaded for the 2026 season.

Silver Lakes, our big hitter.

We have 13 operational volunteers.

Palomino Valley has six, Rancho Haven has six, and South Valleys has six.

As I mentioned with the Gurlach piece, we're coming into our main onboarding season where we expect those numbers to increase.

Usually spring is our our big lift.

This picture is also them performing their refresher training in last spring.

Some numbers from the wildland division overall in terms of fuels management.

During 2025, they treated about 460 acres in general grant work.

Over 1,200 power poles had hazardous fuels mitigated at the base of the poles through our partnerships with NV Energy and Liberty Utilities.

47 acres were treated by prescribed fire.

And our middle management obtained just under 5 million in external funding to support this type of work.

Nearly all of that work occurs in Washoe County to mitigate our exposure to wildland fire there.

This picture is a grant project that we had through HMGP that Chief referenced earlier.

And it is on the west side of Sun Valley.

There were over 500 piles of that size that were cut and cleared and then burned a couple weeks ago when we had our big snowstorm.

Some additional numbers centered around our community.

106 sea citizens participated in our curbside chipping.

Over 1,200 burn permits were issued, which is roughly another 6,500 cubic yards through self-reporting that the public is burning as a force multiplier.

340 defensible space inspections were completed by our my division.

Three Washoe County communities, new Washoe County communities obtained their firewise credentialing.

And we recycled just under 800 Christmas trees, so they're not in the landfill or blowing around in the desert.

Also of note, uh our spring green waste will be coming in about around May is typically when we do it.

If the public's interested in that, those dates will be hitting our website in the next week or two.

I would like to take a moment to mention that these numbers are impressive.

I don't know of another local agency that is uh obtaining this kind of production out in the field, and all of that credit uh is goes to the boots on the ground.

Uh we have 30 to 40 folks, depending on staffing, that this is what they're doing every day.

And we couldn't do it without them.

And from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate every day them coming to work and doing this sometimes thankless work.

Okay, as we talk about segueing into fire season of 2025, some trucky meadows numbers, uh the wildland division spent just over 1,200 days individuals, individual days on wildland incident, and then the district overall just over 1,700 days.

Uh some pictures here of some of our bigger ticket items.

We had the Baron Fire, which was I believe July by Rattlesnake Mountain.

Pivine was between 395 and Pivine Mountain between Stead and Cold Springs, and that was in July, also if I remember correctly.

On the right, we have a map, it's kind of hard to read, but that shows all of our substantial fires from across the county last year, which we were just under 5,000 acres.

Uh generally speaking, that's a fairly normal year.

Normal in Washoe County, there isn't a good average because we can have one fire that goes 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 acres.

So there isn't a good mean, if you will.

But fairly normal year.

Um we had several large fires.

We were blessed in most of them that they were in areas that did that weren't right around houses and communities.

So we look at fire season overall for the state.

Uh the state had same thing, generally speaking, kind of an average year.

Um in Nevada, we can have fires seven, eight hundred thousand for one fire, so that data also gets skewed.

Last year we burned just under 400,000, and the big ticket items were in Elko County.

Uh, Douglas County had the Connor fire, and then you can see on that map um down in Area 51, there were a couple large fires.

But we don't know much about that because we don't go in there to fight fires.

Um, so fairly typical year, and then these pictures are some of our crews that were in Elko helping with the rabid draw fire.

We sent several resources out there.

Last season across the country, uh our the Great Basin had just under 2,800 fires for just under 600,000 acres, which is a fairly slow year for the Great Basin.

And then when we talk nationally, there's some interesting numbers.

Last year we had just under 60,000 fires for, excuse me, our 10-year average, rolling 10-year average is about 60,000 fires for seven and a half million acres.

Last year we had 72,000 fires for 5 million acres.

So 22% increase in starts and a 30, but a 32% decrease in acreage.

And I don't know the why there.

We receive resources on fires like Davis, where we receive resources from across the country, Montana.

And conversely, we also help support fire suppression across the country, as far as Florida and Alaska.

Top picture is our REMS unit, which is a rapid extraction module in Washington.

Bottom left is an engine crew on the Stoner Mesa fire in Colorado, and then bottom right is our dozer on the Monroe Canyon in Utah from last year.

The dozer is the resource that Chief mentioned coming back from Texas currently.

And with that, as we talk about 2026, I'll turn it over to Don.

Thank you.

When I was asked for these slides, it was back on February 23rd.

And we have had several other weather systems since then, which is always kind of a problem with thy just in time.

So I do have some updated data that I can share with everybody.

But uh really those cold storms that we experienced mid-February were a game changer, right?

We have been in a snow drought.

Um, so the plot that you're looking at here is showing you kind of the snow water equivalent, or if you took all of the snow and melted it down, how much liquid would be in the snow.

The black line is where we are currently.

And then that again was as of the 23rd of February.

So that has actually decreased because of what happened the next week.

Um, but some fun stats for us uh is that the Central Sierra Snow Lab, which is one of the only large-scale hand recording manual stations that actually take snow measurements, had a five-day total from that storm of 111 inches of snow.

It was their third highest five-day total on record.

So very impressive series of storms, and it did change the trajectory of where we're at.

Otherwise, we had flatlined through most of January after the holidays, which was our other big push.

So a big thing to make note of here is the snow water equivalent versus how much precipitation or rainfall we have had.

This is a big difference.

We have been low in terms of amount of snow we've been getting, but we're actually above normal for our total rainfall.

So we are trying to look at analog years to this, right?

There are not a lot of analog years.

We have not had many instances in this era where we've had this much rain and this little snow.

And alternatively, if you look across far northern Nevada, right now our snow water equivalent across northern Nevada is only in like the 25 to 40 percent of normal range.

Okay, that's incredibly low.

But if you look at the amount of actual liquid that has fallen from the sky, we're at 100%.

There is actually no analog year whatsoever in northern Nevada that can correspond with that.

So a lot of times we look at these past years to see how the performance of what happened in the winter translates to what will happen in the summer in terms of fire behavior, and we don't actually have examples.

We're in uncharted territory.

We're working right now with the Desert Research Institute to try to learn more to see what we can do with that.

In terms of some updated numbers, though, for you, right now, as of yesterday, our snow water equivalent for the Truckee Carson and Tahoe Basins ranged from about 60 to 70 percent of median for this time of the year, and the Walker Basin was at 81%.

Walker Basin tends to be higher because the overall basin is at a higher elevation, meaning that it gets more snow just because of elevation.

That's all.

Now, if you look in terms of precipitation totals, all of those basins are ranging anywhere from about 110 to 120% of normal.

So again, it has been plenty wet.

It just has been coming as rain because we have been incredibly warm this winter.

This is actually our second warmest uh winter period on record.

Soil moisture is another one of those things that I'm going to update on here.

Um we had a very warm, wet system following our cold snowy system.

And so that eroded a lot of our snowpack.

Um our losses of water equivalent in that snowpack were actually on the order of almost an inch overall.

If you look at the eastern Sierra, we have never had another single day total that large outside of January of 97.

Who remembers what happened that year?

Yeah, the massive flood.

Um, with that though, our soils are incredibly moist right now.

So our soil moistures uh latest numbers are anywhere from about 125 to 165% of normal.

Why is this important?

Couple reasons.

One, as that snow begins to melt, our soils are already wet.

It's not going to have to go back into the soil.

It'll contribute to the runoff.

Two, if we do end up with any very warm and wet systems after this, we are primed to flood.

Okay.

So we're keeping a really close eye.

There's nothing on the horizon, so no, no fear there, but we're just keeping a very close eye on it.

Um, but that storm really, it just decreased our snowpack dramatically.

So very interesting to watch.

Uh, as far as our drought monitoring, uh, most of the western and southern part of the state are drought-free, which is great.

We like to see that as you move towards the eastern portion of the state.

We do have some moderate to severe drought areas that are showing up.

Um, our seasonal outlooks for the summer are leaning warmer and drier.

You do see a little bit of that above normal peaking along into Arizona and New Mexico.

That's that monsoonal influence.

And just as a side note, don't call them monsoons.

A monsoon is just a wind shift that causes thunderstorm activity because we're able to bring moisture up into the region.

What we are looking at uh we call ENSO neutral.

So the El Nino Southern Oscillation is ENSO.

Uh neutral conditions are favored right now for the summer, which tends to mean near normal monsoonal activity.

So that usually means some thunderstorm days.

And of course, we are concerned with any kind of dry lightning because of the fuels availability.

So, any questions on the weather section?

All right, we'll turn it back to the chief.

All right.

Um, in conclusion, from the from the elements that uh Dawn gave us.

Oftentimes we get asked what we're predicting for the next fire season.

And long story short, it's hard to do.

Number one, we don't, there's no prediction for how bad lightning will be next summer.

Um, and then on top of that, the vast majority of our starts are human-cause it doesn't matter how good or bad the landscape is in terms of being primed for fire if we don't have the starts.

And so that part is hard to predict.

In terms of where we sit currently, um, I am not a fan.

So and the reasons there is typically broad generalization, typically, if we have a wet winter, we expect to be busier with fires in the valley bottoms and slower up on the slopes because the snow is sitting up in the timber, and but the water contributes to grass growth in the valleys.

And then we would expect the the flip side of that in a dry year.

This year, at least as of right now, we have both scenarios, and I don't remember a time in my career where we had that.

We are above average on water and soil moisture.

So the cheat grass crop is having a heyday, no pun intended.

Um but the snow level has been so high that that snow won't be sitting at those elevations like we would normally hope for in June and July.

And so they will the timber will be more water stressed.

So not a big fan of where we're sitting in terms of next fire season, but obviously it doesn't matter if we don't have the starts.

With that, in conclusion, just like to remind the public um, again, most of our starts are human-caused, and we can avoid a lot of our uh headaches as we get into the summer based on our behavior.

Um, and then secondly, right now is the time to start working on your home for defensible space and home hardening, not in July and August when the smoke's in the air.

Um, if the public would like some reference material for that, living with fire is a photo up there.

They have a lot of good publications that are available for the public to use uh with a lot of really um solid and beneficial references.

That's all I have.

We'll open it up for questions if there are any.

Thank you so much.

And just a point of order, we're having some network issues, and I just got a message that it should hopefully be coming back online um here shortly.

So our iPads are not working, and I don't think folks at home are watching this amazing presentation, but nonetheless, I'll bring it back to the board on um if there's any questions or comments regarding the fuels management or the weather uh information that was provided to us today.

Commissioner Herman.

I just wanted to mention that in uh the North Valleys area.

Uh some of the cattle people are not grazing this year because that's it.

And so we're gonna have all this extra few kind of so big worry with me.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Um, for those of us who attended last week's um meeting here in Chambers, it was a packed house.

The Nevada Division of Insurance was here presenting.

I think it goes uh along well with this presentation because a lot of folks have homeowners insurance on their minds.

And so what we learned at that meeting is that if uh folks are receiving their non-renewal notices for home insurance, um, that they can contact the Nevada Division of Insurance, and they have a um a part of their division that investigates the consumer complaints and they provide information about um insurance-related concerns.

So that email is CSC at DOI.nv.gov.

Again, that's CsCC at DOI.nv dot gov.

All right.

No other updates.

Thank you so much for the amazing um information and the 30 to 40 member team is small but mighty.

It's incredible what you've been able to accomplish.

Um, one quick question before you leave.

The Nevada NV Energy Um is uh just under five million dollars, you said how often do we apply for that?

Is that a multi-year gift or is it annual?

Yeah, so that partnership has morphed over the years that started in 2020.

Um, and from the NV Energy's direction from the public utilities commission, it has changed currently the way that it works is we have a standing three-year contract, and then every winter we basically bid on work, and then the following January, February time frame is when they tell us what we've been awarded under the three-year uh master contract.

We'll keep up with the good great work.

I hope they see these amazing results and we can keep that funding source coming.

So great job today.

Thank you for having us.

All right, we'll close out item number seven and move to item number eight.

Item number eight is the International Association of Firefighters Local 2487 report.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Uh, for the record, Mark Thyer, President 2487.

I want to start by thanking the commissioners uh who went out of their way to come meet with me, get to learn a little bit about me and share a little bit of yourselves with me so we can continue our relationship in a very cooperative way.

And I know for a couple of you it was uh a particularly stormy day.

You know, we had the um Don Johnson talking about that that storm, and uh a couple of you braved those uh road conditions to meet with me.

So I really appreciate that.

Um let's keep this cooperative relationship moving forward.

Uh secondly, I just want to point out um uh 14th annual guns and hoses golf tournament is going to be happening in April.

For those of you that are unaware, this is a partnership between the firefighters of Truckee Meadows and the deputies of Washio County, where we put together a golf tournament and all proceeds benefit the Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation.

I don't have the total number that we've raised over the 13 prior years, but um it's an outrageous amount of money that uh we uh provide to the Northern Nevada Children's Cancer Foundation, which is a really wonderful local charity um that's doing amazing things, and we continue to partner with them with this golf tournament.

So uh if you have the opportunity, if you can get somebody uh to to get you a spot on their team, it's really a fun tournament um because it's cops versus firefighters, you know, that that old clash uh of heroes.

And uh, you know, we have one hole where the firefighters have to wear SWAT gear and the cops have to wear firefighter turnouts and try and drive off the the T box.

So um this year I'm pretty sure the firefighters are gonna win it because um the cops are running out of ways to cheat.

Um, the last thing I want to say is it's a real honor and privilege to see the last group of uh firefighter probationary firefighters become um you know basically full-blown firefighters, it is special to me because I was part of their initial academy.

Um I instructed at multiple academies.

That this academy, this last one I was uh an instructor is at as well.

So uh there's a tremendous amount of pride with me um seeing everyone who made it through the academy make it through probation.

That is the future of our department.

These are the people that are doing the work that fulfills the mission of this fire department.

Um, and it's great to see those guys having gone through all of their trials, tribulations, challenges, um, and just having that determination to continue and get to this point here.

I'm super proud uh not only as the uh 2047 president, but especially as the guy who was there at day one for them.

So um tremendous amount of pride for me, but glad to see them make it.

Is there any questions from the commission?

You said it was an 18-week fire academy.

Uh it's actually 16 weeks, but there's time at the front and end of that um before they actually hit the line.

Um, so it's uh basically four, four and a half months uh of just a grueling difficult time frame for them and for the instructors.

Any questions or comments from the board?

All right, standing hearing none.

Thank you so much for your leadership.

I appreciate you coming down today.

Thank you very much.

All right, that was item number eight, and we're moving into item number nine, Chief Edwards.

All right, item uh number nine is the fire chief's report.

So I've provided you with uh some updated pictures of uh the construction project at new fire station 35.

Um we're looking forward to our ribbon cutting ceremony sometime in July, as we'll welcome that firehouse online.

Um also provide an update on a drone program.

This is a real innovative program in partnership with Washoe County Sheriff's Office, uh placing drones at Fire Station 45 and 46.

Um, and so we're really looking forward to seeing how that will help us as we come into fire season because those drones are for public uh safety use.

Um, so they can launch those drones at report of a fire, they can get some of the first eyes on the fire force, let us know the size, the complexity, the challenges with that fire, so that we can then reassign resources or add resources as appropriate uh to combat those fires.

So we're really looking forward to that technology as we enter into fire season this year.

Um, a big project that we've been working on for a while with uh Washoe County uh manager's office.

Uh really appreciate Manager Thomas and Assistant Manager Solaro and their help and helping us to um just reimagine how we coordinate volunteer fire service here in the county um and how we streamline the fiscal processes associated with that.

So we're working on a new interlocal agreement that I'll be bringing back to this board um to highlight those changes and I think uh just create a more efficient overall fire service here in Washoe County.

Um and then the last item uh as we talk about the monthly response statistics.

Um this month you'll kind of if you look at it real closely, you'll notice that some of the headings are different um compared to the previous months back in December.

And this is because of changes at the U.S.

Fire Administration and their adoption of new um analytic platforms there.

So we used to have the National Fire Incident Reporting System or NFERS is what we referred to it, and they've had that system in place for over 50 years.

Um, this last year they changed that system to NERES, which is the National Emergency Response Information System.

And so the headings kind of changed a little bit.

So if you're looking and comparing January's data to December's, some of those headings may be off, and that's why.

Um, so we'll try to keep that as consistent as possible moving forward.

Um, but wanted to share why those those uh reports may look a little different.

And then I also wanted to share in January um through our mutual aid and auto aid agreements with uh Reno and Sparks.

Uh Reno arrived at Truckee Meadow Calls 194 times, and we arrived at Reno Calls 249 times.

And then for Sparks, we arrived um at their calls 82 times, and they came to our calls 27 times.

And that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Chief.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Uh thank you, Chief.

So uh when are we going to stop the double dispatch?

So that's a great question.

Uh we're having a lot of productive conversations right now about regional dispatch to bring everybody under one roof.

So we thought that Hexagon would be the temporary mandate to that.

Um, and as we see that Hexagon has its challenges, um, they're continuing to work through those challenges to get that software turned online.

Um pushed out to at least July right now at the earliest.

Um, and so as soon as they can get that turned on, we can um eliminate some of those dual dispatches.

Um absent that, I think having the conversations about regional dispatch um with Reno and Sparks and REMSA to bring fire and EMS all under one roof will also help to eliminate that.

And so we're having those conversations now.

We're getting ready to form working groups to look at what that looks like to model it after a southern Nevada um project that's very similar to that in Clark County with Las Vegas and North Las Vegas fire.

Um, so hopefully we'll have some more definitive resolution uh in the coming months to be able to share that out.

Great.

And is Sparks dispatching with Reno now?

Or is that what I have heard?

No.

No, so Sparks uh still is dispatched under their police department and and Reno is with their police.

Yeah, so we're all just still separate.

Okay, I think I had just heard perhaps a rumor about that.

Um thank you for that and keep us posted on what's going on with Hexagon.

I know that uh manager Thomas also is helping us with that, but let us know how we can help.

Absolutely.

Great.

Anything else?

Commissioner Clark.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

I've got a few comments.

Uh I want to uh thank the uh firefighters local 2487 for their help with seniors.

Uh they volunteer their off-duty time to help uh defensible space for seniors, and and that's been a big help.

And that's in addition to Chief Eisenhagen's uh removal of particular waste.

I mean, there are other things that are being taken out of the uh the uh fuels, and it's done by volunteers.

So I want to thank them for that.

I want to thank the fire chief for uh uh attending different meetings with me out in Cold Springs and Cab meetings, uh, you know, his availability and his commitment to the community has been uh very refreshing.

Uh folks come in after he leaves that this is the first time they've had an opportunity to meet it, the chief, and and they really appreciate uh Chief Edwards coming out and and uh his involvement in the community.

Uh you know, uh also the green waste removal that the county's very instrumental in, and also uh the extended burn days.

I think anytime we can remove fuels, it's uh good news for the for the future and uh keeping uh fires, uh fire danger down.

Uh lastly, uh I'd like to get the I you spoke kind of quickly.

I'd like to get those numbers again on on how many times we respond to uh the different municipalities within our county.

I think I think this shows that we are really a good neighbor to our our fellow cities.

It looked like each and every time with Reno and Sparks that that uh we respond to their their needs more than they do us.

And we certainly appreciate every time they respond to our needs, but but we are good neighbors is is uh uh fire service here in the county responding to could I get those numbers again?

Sure, please.

So in January, Reno arrived at a Trucking Meadows call 194 times, and Trucky Meadows arrived at a Reno call 249 times.

Sparks arrived at a Trucky Meadows call 27 times, and we uh Trucky Meadows arrived at a Sparks call 82 times.

I think that just illustrates the point that I was trying to make that that we are good neighbors and we are trying to help all the citizens, and we're not so much interested in uh uh traditional boundary lines on a map.

We're we're here here to help folks that are in need of help.

So thank you for the uh to you and all your staff and all the folks that are uh the online uh not online the the line uh folks, the the rank and file people that are that are doing this uh heavy lifting for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Herman, anything?

No, there's been a lot of chatter in Sun Valley about the drones online.

I had no idea that they were that it was the platform is actually at station 45.

Um is it on the roof, or can you talk to me about where that is and how big it is?

I'm trying to envision what that looks like.

If somebody could speak to that.

Yes, uh, you know what?

I'll invite up uh division chief Swiak.

He's been uh instrumental in this project to speak about it.

Jay Sweak, division chief logistics.

Um I don't want to take away any thunder from Washwork County SL.

Yeah, uh, because uh it's their program.

Uh but there are two enclosed landing pads that are located on top of the fire station.

Uh and the drones live with inside those landing pads.

Um, there's a lot of coordination that they do with uh radar for uh the entire area, and their mission basically is is that as soon as they receive a report of something going on, it's a drone first responder program.

So as soon as they receive that report, they launch and then they go and look at the area with the drone.

Um my understanding is that they did uh have a significant law enforcement incident that it was credited with being on scene prior to the deputies and actually able to locate the suspect so that the deputies were able to get on scene and handle the situation really quickly.

Um but it's all contained within side, protected from the weather, can fly under certain wind conditions and and so on and so forth.

Um, and pretty clear footage.

Yes.

Um thank you so much for the explanation.

I know that this is really important and keeping our law enforcement and our firefighters safe before they arrive.

And there's been a um and a variety of success stories already, just in the short amount of time that this uh collaboration has happened.

So thank you so much.

All right, that was item number nine.

We'll close that out and move into item number 10.

Chief.

All right, item number 10 is a financial presentation on the status of the fiscal year 2526 general fund and capital project funds as of January 31st, 2026.

And we have CFO Crystal Sublett to give us the presentation.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Um, Chief Edwards.

Uh, first I want to take a minute to also thank Rachel and Simona um on my team.

They have Rachel Simone and Kim have been very beneficial in training me.

Um, I have learned a lot from all of them, and it is very it's very refreshing to come to a finance team that's uh dedicated and committed and very knowledgeable.

And so I just wanted to extend my gratitude to them as well.

Um I have learned that I am in control of the clicker.

Yes, so we'll see how this goes.

Just that button.

Maybe no, that's the back button.

There we go.

I think that's right.

Thank you.

Um, so I'm presenting to you the January financial statements.

Um, as you can see, our revenues are no, I took these off.

60% of the annual budget at this time of year with property taxes remaining or our primary source.

We have three of our four major payments received.

We should be getting the fourth one in May.

Um property tax collections currently total 23.6 million.

Uh we receive we have received as of January five of the consolidated tax payments, and that is composes of 5.1 million of our revenue.

Um, and so we are currently at a total of 60.2 percent of our budget.

Um, and then if we go on to expenditures, um our our expenditures of our general fund are 79% are salaries, wages, and benefits.

Uh, right now we are running favorable in our expenditures uh as of January.

We should be at 58% of our expenditures and budget.

Um, currently we are at 51.3 percent of the of the total budgeted expenditures um totaling 24.1 million.

Um well, the salaries and wages and benefits are the largest totaling 24.1 million, um, and our total expenditures are 29.8 million as of January.

Um I also would like to, if there are not any, I'll wait till the end.

I would also like to give you an update on where we are for the upcoming budgeting process.

Uh, we plan to bring a preliminary tentative budget to the board on a at the April 7th meeting.

Um, then the April 15th, we will get a another report from the Department of Tax Taxation.

Um tentative budget will be submitted to the Department of Taxation.

Later in March, we will be getting our final revenue numbers from the from the Department of Taxation.

Expect to bring the final budget after your guys' first review in April to the May meeting, and then we'll have the public hearing, hoping to have the final budget adopted May 19th, and then um with a backup date of May 26th, and then we will uh submit it to the final budget to the Department of Taxation on June 1st, hopefully before June 1st.

Any questions?

Looking to the board.

All right, no questions.

Thank you so much for the update and presentation.

That was a non-action item, so we'll go ahead and close out item number 10 and move into item number 11.

All right, item number 11 is the commissioners or fire chief's announcements, request for information and topics for future agendas.

This is a non-action item.

No discussion among commissioners will take place on this item.

Do we have any?

Yes.

I just want to commend the chief and the team.

I think it's just really great to see all these new hires coming together and your team coming together and everyone gelling.

And um, I know it's been um a exciting transition with you as chief, but also challenging with the budget realities and hearing how tightly everyone has pulled their belts and that we're only at 51% of expenditures, whereas we have uh 58% of our uh revenues coming in or expected revenues and the work that you're doing with the manager's office.

I'm just feeling very um excited for the next fiscal year because I I know it's still going to be a challenge, but I think that you've got a great team to pull together, and I just want to welcome everyone.

And I'm really excited about the future of TM.

So thank you for your leadership.

Thank you, Commissioner Hill.

Good, thank you.

Commissioner Herman would like to second that motion.

Well, thank you so much.

Um, we are done with Commissioner and Fire Chief announcements and our final public comment.

All right, number 12 is a public comment.

Comment heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the Board of Fire Commissioners agenda.

Comments are to be made to the Board of Fire Commissioners as a whole.

Thank you, Chief Edwards.

Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment at this time?

My live manager is locked up, but there were no there was nobody signed in.

Thank you, everybody, for rolling with the technology issues today.

We are at the end of our meeting.

So what we're gonna do is remind me, Chief Edwards, we're gonna um adjourn now.

Adjourn now and and go upstairs for a closed session.

All right, great.

We are adjourned.

Jen Gustavson, for the record, I'll just mention that um technically the meeting's not adjourned, but it's in recess.

We're gonna have the closed session and then at the towards the end of the closed section, call for public comment once again.

So if anyone is interested in providing public comment at that time, it'll be upstairs in the in the caucus room.

You can wait outside the caucus room.

And then at the after that public comment period, then the meeting will be adjourned.

All right.

We will uh recess at this time.

Thank you so much for a great meeting.