SANDPOINT — The Selkirk Fire Joint Powers Board met Thursday to discuss extending JPA timelines to accommodate upcoming workshops and approve two recommendations.

During a chief’s report, Chief Gavin Gilcrease summarized recent activity regarding continuation of a joint powers agreement among local fire departments, including the Sandpoint City Council’s decision to establish workshops that will encourage further discussion before entering into another term. The Selkirk Fire JPA is composed of Sagle, Westside and Sandpoint fire departments. 

A meeting has been scheduled for Jan. 31 for union representatives and JPA officials to consider this extension. 

Clint Frank, president of the Selkirk Firefighters Local 2319 union, has indicated “willingness to postpone the upcoming CBA negotiations for the purposes of the workshop,” Gilcrease said.  

The JPA contract, which is currently set to expire in April, is expected to be extended until the end of June. 

During the chief’s general report, Gilcrease announced “career anniversaries” for employees within the fire department. He congratulated Captain Glen Cassidy for reaching 22 years of service and engineer Josh Palkki for 13 years of service this January. 

The review of incidents for the month of December included 68 calls for service in Sagle, 72 calls in Sandpoint, and nine calls in Westside. 

The board also discussed an auto-aid agreement, which describes a more efficient way to respond to calls with partner agencies.

“With mutual-aid agreement we get called out to a call, once we’re en route and we find out what’s going on we just get a short report or something like that from dispatch that lets us know,” Gilcrease said. “At that time, the officer of the rig usually makes the call whether they think there is something to it, or they’re positive there’s something to it, they pick up the microphone and call for mutual aid.”

Auto aid is built into run cards to save steps for those called in for aid and help firefighters get off the floor more quickly. 

“So if it is a structure fire somewhere on this end, it will pull the duty chief and it will pull the first three engines that are set on the card,” he said. “Nobody has to pick up a mic, they’re all coming.”

The board voted to recommend the auto-aid agreement to the entity boards. They also voted to recommend the implementation of Brycer, a platform used to conduct and track fire inspections. The program maintains records, sends reminders of inspection due dates and offers access to a data dashboard. With overdue sprinkler systems and extinguishers being a common occurrence in the community, Gilcrease said this could be an important change.