Preliminary budget passed, concerns presented about billing practices

SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Rural Fire District Board approved their insurance policy and passed a preliminary budget at their June 18 meeting.

Marketing Coordinator - Montana Chris Hindoien with Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services, Inc (VFIS) presented this year’s insurance plan to the board. The policy increased $476 from last year to cover the buildings, 13 vehicles and the volunteers on and off work. He said that the Department is adequately insured to cover liability concerns and to meet state law including the accident and sickness policy and workers compensation for volunteers. He said that the Seeley Lake Fire District is in the top 97 percentile of all fire departments he insures as far as insurance levels.

The board voted unanimously to keep the same levels of coverage and make no major changes to the insurance policy.

The board reviewed the preliminary budget. Seeley Lake Fire Chief Dave Lane said the total expenses have decreased since 2018, including budgeted expenses. He explained because the District had so many things to fix to address safety concerns and adjustments and corrections to make, they went over budget last year. However that can be taken out of the $110,000 carry over and the projected budget for this year is in line with what was projected last year.

“When you look at our actual expenditures for this year minus the carryover, we’re at $81,780.09 left over,” said Lane. “If you look at the bottom line that number is going down a little bit but at the same time we are decreasing expenditures and increasing revenue.”

Lane said the only place he can make significant increases to the budget is through ambulance revenue. Since the District adjusted the loaded mile rate for the ambulance, from $15 to $22 in March, their ambulance revenue increased from $55,000 to $65,000 with June still left to bill for the fiscal year.

Lane projected $75,000 in ambulance revenue for the 2019 budget. However, he said this is a conservative estimate and expects to generate significantly more income. He told the board he is not comfortable with the situation with the current billing company and will make further recommendations next month at the board meeting. He has questions that are going unanswered and there are things happening that he feels are poor business.

“I think we can do a lot better with our collections and that is why I’m looking into alternative billing solutions for us,” said Lane. “If that happens, then I expect that $75,000 to be about half of what we should be making.”

The board approved the preliminary budget with the final reading at the July meeting.

The next board meeting is scheduled for July 16 at 6 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Fire Hall. For the agenda and other information visit seeleyfire.org.