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different brand for future purchases. It would be a disaster to have so any different brands of units. Our present SCBA's are wearing out and requiring lots of repairs which are very expensive. Our grant application for this gear totaled about $90,000. We hired a professional grant writer to help us with the application. Donations received during the quarter were $100.00 from Craig and Claire Nagel, $4600.00 from the Pelican Lakes Conservation Club to purchase and equip an enclosed trailer for our snowmobile, four wheeler, rescue sled and trailer, and ice rescue equipment, and about $5000.00 from the Lakes Area Medical Association which was to be used for the video and sound equipment for our training room. That equipment was already paid for by other funds. We have asked the medical board if this donation could be used for other equipment. The Fire Chief has been taking building inspector classes so he is able to enforce fire safety regulations. He has passed the test. The department has contracted with a medical firm to provide NFPA required physicals for each fire fighter. This will be done at a cost of$60.00 each. The physical will consist of a 12 lead EKG, blood pressure check, and a urine test. The physicals are scheduled for May 1St Several by-law changes were passed by the department recently. The five year term limit for our fire Chief has been eliminated. Any fifth Wednesdays of a month has been designated a required training meeting. Our meeting time has been changed from 7 pm to now start at 6:30 pm. New members serving their first year will now be evaluated by the Executive Board to make sure they have completed all the requirements. This was previously done by a all member vote. Any fire fighter who is on probation for any purpose cannot serve in an Officer's position. Fire department personnel have agreed to sponsor a pancake breakfast during the new community choke cherry festival scheduled for August.16th. Some fire fighters helped with the Breezy Point Polar Plunge again this year, Several fire fighters attended fire schools held at Brainerd and Mankato. We constructed a divider wall between our area and the water department. We are striving to improve our accountability for our personnel during incidents. During new business, there were complaints of our increased fire contract fees and questions about what we can do to decrease our budget. Chief Nelson explained that new regulations have significantly caused our operation costs to increase. Examples of this are the requirement for physicals and new regulations for SCBA's which have increased their cost from $3500.00 to $5100.00. Other reasons are the increase in fire fighters to provide man power at any given time. We now have six fire fighters working out of town which cannot respond to day time calls, so we had to increase our membership. Also there is a nation wide shortage of volunteer fire fighters who are available. In Minnesota, statistics show that 71% of the state's volunteer fire fighters are 35 years of age and older. Another example is our Hurst rescue equipment we have used for several years is no longer