Safety meeting on fire department rescheduled

A Havre City Council Safety Committee meeting to discuss possible safety hazards in the Havre Fire Department scheduled for Thursday was canceled and rescheduled for May 16 at 9 a.m. at the request of Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher, who said it was improperly noticed at Havre City Hall and in local media.

The primary issue the meeting was called to address is lead and asbestos in the fire department’s building that could be dangerous to those working there, an issue Havre City Council Member and Safety Committee Chair Josh Miller says city government, including Kaercher, has known about for some time but not addressed, something Kaercher says is untrue.

Miller said Thursday that Kaercher told him that because the meeting would be in violation of Montana's open meeting laws it should be rescheduled.

This afternoon Kaercher said because the meeting was not posted on the city hall bulletin board and wasn't noticed outside of a story printed in the Havre Daily News Tuesday the meeting doesn't follow the state's open meeting laws.

Montana Freedom of Information Hotline attorney Mike Meloy said Thursday afternoon that the meeting being reported in a news story could constitute adequate notice depending on the nature of the committee and the subject matter to be discussed.

Kaercher said it wasn't posted on the bulletin board in city hall because Miller never asked for it to be posted.

Miller said he and fellow city council and safety committee member Denise Brewer feel they were within the law when setting up this meeting and they feel the situation is urgent enough that it needed to be dealt with immediately.

"Am I doing things a little differently, yes, but I'm doing that for a purpose, because I believe things need to be done a little bit differently," Miller said.

He said that he feels the administration is "going into defense mode" and in an email sent to the Havre Daily News Thursday afternoon he said he feels the safety committee is being treated differently.

"We don't ever put notices out for our committee meetings such as safety," he said in the email. "Other council members have said the same thing. I send out an email saying when they are and that's it. It's clear that Denise Brewer (my colleague on the safety committee) and I are being treated differently, but I'm not pushing this issue, I'm just making you aware of what happened today."

Asbestos and lead at the fire department

While delivering a report on the safety committee's recent investigation into the situation at the fire department Monday, Miller said, the ceiling texture in the office, living quarters and truck quarters has broken loose and covers the firefighters' beds, desks, trucks and other surfaces.

He said Assistant Fire Chief Nathan Courtnage sent some in for testing and it tested positive for asbestos fibers.

He also said the committee was told that diesel exhaust from the trucks has covered the walls of the truck quarters and gotten into other parts of the building as well and the sensors placed on the walls are inadequate to detect exhaust and kick on ventilation.

Brewer read from some letters by firefighters about the problems at Monday's meeting as well.

Miller said that after the safety committee meeting ended, members took a tour of the fire department and took photographs and discussed the shooting range below the department, which is the range used by youths in the junior rifle clubs.

He said the range is inadequately ventilated and is a concern for lead exposure.

He said the committee later received a report indicating the lead is much higher than levels accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 10 micrograms per square foot on the floors to 100 micrograms per square foot on the walls. He said every surface tested was 2,000 to 4,000 times higher than accepted.

Kaercher's response to issues

Miller said city government has known about these issues for a long time and has documents and emails chains to indicate that.

Kaercher has said the first time he's heard about these issues was last month.

He said Thursday he doesn't know what emails Miller could be referring to. He said when he was working for the city before, at the beginning of the year, becoming mayor he may have been included on some emails related to it at some point but the issue wouldn't have been in the “wheelhouse” of his position so he wouldn't have known about it.

He said when he did learn of the asbestos issue in mid-April of this year the city put in an application for a Brownfields grant — one that would be denied — to try to alleviate the issue and has since been looking for a hygienist that can take care of the problem.

He said they also contacted their insurance when they found out about the lead a couple weeks ago and have been working on that issues as well, so Miller's idea that the current administration is doing nothing about the issue is completely incorrect.

“If Mr. Miller had happened to come and talk to me at any point … he would have been told all of that,” he said.

Miller also said Kaercher asked the fire department not to be at the committee meeting before it was canceled.

Kaercher said that is true and he did ask that they refrain from going in part due to the lack of proper notice, but also because he wouldn't be able to be there if the meeting had happened.

He said because much of this issue revolves around the idea that his administration is not doing anything about this issue, he wanted to be at the meeting.

The rescheduled meeting will be May 16 at 9 a.m. in the Emergency Operations Center of Havre City Hall.