By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor
At the Fire District #2’s monthly board meeting Wednesday night a board seat became vacant with the resignation of the board’s chairman Hunter Soileau, effective April 1, 2016.
During the meeting, board member Danny McDaniel read Soileau’s letter aloud to the board.
In his letter, Soileau stated, “It has been both a privilege and a pleasure serving with all of you. The fire services have and will continue to be a passion of mine, and I will continue to help the department in any way that I can.”
Soileau’s resignation also created the need for a new board chairman to be selected.
Board member Steve Thibodeaux nominated McDaniel for the position, and the board approved.
At the meeting the board also discussed hiring a training officer to help alleviate the work load of fire chief Chris Harrison.
Discussion about this topic began at the February meeting when Harrison first mentioned the idea.
At the March meeting, McDaniel said, “Generally, it has been the city that deals with personnel matters, and it has always worked well that way. I think we should let the city tell us what they would like to do, and then we can go from there.”
The city has a say in this matter because the fire district would only be paying 26 percent of the training officers salary, while the city would pay the rest.
A decision has yet to be made on whether a training officer position will be created and filled.
The board’s next meeting is set for April 12, at 6:00 p.m.
Other items discussed and approved at the meeting were:
•Adopt the resolution of passed tax.
•Resolution to consider tax renewal for the November election.
•Accept the fire chief report of two structure fires, three grass fires, and one vehicle fire responded to for the month.
•Motion to advertise for the sale of the 219 truck, with a set minimum bid of $80,000.
•Motion to advertise for bids for five sets of turnout gear for each fire station in the district.