At the Monday evening, Sept. 14, Turkey Creek fire board meeting, Fire Chief Mickey Scott unsealed two bids the department received for a new ambulance.

The new vehicle will serve as the scheduled replacement for the department’s current 2002 ambulance.

The board directed Scott to analyze the voluminous bids, contained in thick three-ring binders, and report his findings at a special meeting scheduled for 6:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at Turkey Creek Fire Station 1 in Syracuse.

Construction of the new vehicle will take between 180 and 240 days to complete.

Scott updated the board on the job description he has been crafting for a proposed new position in the department.

“This will be an overall training officer position” designed to standardize the implementation of department training, said Scott. “Some interviews have taken place.”

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act the position is not exempt from overtime pay. “The position is subject to the same hours as any other employee,” said Scott.

In other business:

• The board provided clarification on its previously approved purchase of physical fitness equipment for the department, noting the Syracuse Town Council had not yet voted on the issue. The fire board will request a legal opinion on the effect of the council’s inaction and discuss its options at the Sept. 21 special meeting.

• The department received its new grass and brush truck July 20. The old truck will be auctioned off Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Syracuse Community Center.

• The contract for paving portions of the fire stations’ lots has been signed and work will begin mid-September. The board previously approved $66,778.20 for the work.

“Since the parking lot on the south side of Station 1 is part of the project and this lot is sometimes utilized for parking for meetings at the town hall, as well as vendors and customers at the Farmer’s Market events on Saturdays at Veterans Park, we would ask that other arrangements be made for parking while this project is going on,” Scott said.

• The department conducted its annual MDA Fill-the-Boot Drive Saturday, Aug. 22. “We raised $2,784.48 for MDA,” Scott announced. “We would like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone in our community.”

• With two-thirds of the calendar year elapsed, expenditures in all line items are within pro rata expectations, with three minor exceptions. Repair parts, equipment repairs and radio maintenance have used more than 70 percent of their allocations. But Scott does not anticipate any more costs in those line items through year’s end.

“More holiday pay and overtime will come out toward the end of the year,” he said. “That’s normal for those items.”

• The department experienced a decrease in emergency runs in August, with a total of 121 runs, down from 163 in July.

At the township board meeting, held immediately after the fire board meeting, Trustee Barb Griffith requested an appropriation of $27,000 to pay for cemetery remediation work.

Griffith also presented for signature a resolution designating county option income taxes to defray expenditures of the fire department.

Scott announced a federally-mandated financial hardship policy affecting ambulance billing which took effect Sept. 15.

The policy allows those meeting federal poverty guidelines to defer a percentage of the ambulance fees and/or make payments.