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Fire fighters completed medical and fit tests for air masks for 2015. Some fire fighters are participating in First Responder training at this time. The Department celebrated the 2014 year end with a dinner party at Breezy Point Resort. Each fire fighter was awarded a certificate and pin for the amount of service time they have completed. Bob Peterson II and Tim Crist recently completed 20 years of service. Bob Peterson I completed 40 years of service. Neil Casanova was honored as"Fire Fighter of the Year"and for attending the "Most Fire Calls of the Year"for 2014.Travis Jacobus was recognized as"Rookie Fire Fighter of the Year"for 2014. Fire Chief Tom Nelson and Assistant Chiefs Bill Rickard and Brian Evenson, along with Jessica Jacobson,organized and planned the event.The goal for the awards is to improve attendance at meetings and fire calls. Election of Fire Board Officers followed. Current Officers are Chairman Bob Peterson and Vice-Chairman John Benson. Bartels motioned to re-elect our present Officers, second by Sodd, motion passed. The Fire Department elected new Officers last month.Tom Nelson was re-elected Fire Chief. Bill Rickard was re-elected First Assistant Chief. Brian Evenson was re-elected Second Assistant Chief. Mike Schwankl, Daren Nordby,and Dave Szymanski were elected Captains. Bob Peterson II was elected as our new Safety Officer. Bob Peterson I was re-elected Secretary. Fire contract rates for 2015 will be calculated using all fire calls instead of just structure fire calls.This change was approved at our last meeting.Contract fees are calculated using 10 year averages for fire calls so rates do not drastically fluctuate. Mutual aid fire calls are not recognized for our contract rate calculation. Mike Dubay suggested the Board analyze total hours our Department gives mutual aid verses the hours we receive mutual aid. We have considered this comparison to average out over the years. Mutual aid is very important to all fire departments to provide the best quality service and response time to all.There are situations where a homeowner lives closer to a neighboring fire department than the one that serves them.A good mutual aid relationship between departments can improve response times in these cases. Mike also asked if our Department can provide high and low angle rescue. Chief Nelson scheduled this training during 2014 but the instructor was not available due to a death in his family. Hopefully this class will be completed this year. Chief Nelson informed members that Crow Wing County's grant to study mutual aid shared services program that we talked about at our last meeting has been implemented.An official hired to conduct this project has gathered data from all area Departments.The results and recommendations from this study should be available by summer.This should have an impact on the present mutual aid agreements. Automatic mutual aid may be a possibility and a result from the study. Along with this the DNR's program to educate homeowners concerning wild fires has also studied the Pequot Lakes rural areas and is ready to make recommendations to homeowners. Tom has talked to the DNR to ask them to study all our other contracted areas also. Hopefully they can do this. The City of Pequot Lakes has ordered a new police car which will have the capacity to carry extra fire turnout gear, air packs,gloves, boots, and other essentials which will assist the Fire Department by being a first unit to arrive at a scene or be called to provide the supplies.This is a great plan and a sharing of emergency services. Next meeting will be April 29 at 7:00 pm at the fire station. Sodd motioned to adjourn,second by Rudberg, meeting adjourned.