Matlock area Fire 12 gets new meeting days, website

Fire District 12 commissioners agreed to change regular business meeting days to 6 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month at a meeting July 3.

Meetings are currently at the Matlock Grange, 61 West Beeville Road in Matlock.

The district is also getting a new website at mason12.org, which should be up and running soon, acting Chief Mike Brown said.

Brown gave an update on maintenance happening on apparatus and emergency equipment at Station 1 during the meeting.

“We’re making headway,” he said.

Oil filters on the vehicles haven’t been changed since 2017 and 2018, according to Brown.

“The filters were just black,” he said.

None of the equipment is operable for fire response, Brown said.

The district is still looking for insurance and has been turned down by several agencies, he said, though another application has been submitted and the chief is waiting to hear back.

“As soon as we get our insurance then we will actually come together as a fire district and we will work as a fire district,” Brown said.

Commissioners passed several resolutions at the meeting, including one that requires Fire District 12 staff and officials to use cloud storage for all official documents.

“Since the prior board has stepped down, we lost access to a lot of our records. They were shredded, they were destroyed, and wiped out. We need cloud storage to protect those documents,” Commissioner Trina Young said.

Commissioners also mandated signatures of at least two commissioners and the administrative assistant or board secretary on approved commission meeting minutes and required supporting documentation to accompany vouchers.

They tabled voting on modifications that “tighten up” the district’s surplus policy, according to Young.

It requires an inventory of surplus be conducted and maintained regularly, values the inventoried items and requires the board to decide what to put in surplus.

Commissioners agreed to discuss the policy updates more and planned on a vote in the future.