By Rebekah Bradway

November 3, 2006 | PARADISE -- After about an hour of discussion and minimal changes, the Town Council approved the Paradise Fire and Rescue Department's new guidelines, to be adopted within the department immediately.

Fire Chief Troy Fredrickson proposed the guidelines in the 61-page "Paradise Fire and Rescue Policies, Standard Operating Procedures and Standard Operating Guidelines." After having a few weeks to read over the material, the council discussed it with Fredrickson at the meeting Wednesday evening.

"This is what we need to operate our fire department day to day," Fredrickson said.

One suggestion Mayor Lee Atwood had for the document was to make sure it was written that drivers for the department were at least 21 years old or had five years of driving experience in the United States.

Fredrickson, Assistant Fire Chief Blake Pulsipher, and council members discussed someone over 21 may have less driving experience than someone under that age. Fredrickson mentioned the possibility that both people at the station may be under 21 and, therefore, could not drive to fight a fire under those restrictions.

"To even be in the department, you'd have to be 21," Pulsipher said. He said the department has at least one person under 21 currently.

The Utah Local Governments Trust, which insures the fire department's vehicles, said they "highly recommend" that the driver is at least 21. The council and firefighters decided to use this wording in the department's guidelines.

In other business, the council:
-- discussed approving a conditional-use permit to allow a caretaker to live in a separate dwelling on someone's property. Usually all people living on one lot must live in the same dwelling.
-- approved a preliminary annexation request for Ryan Obray and approved four building permits.
-- began filling out surveys for USU landscape architecture and environmental planning students as they start researching Powder Mountain and its effects on southern Cache County.
-- said water issues had been taken care of after two samples in the town had come back bad out of four samples. Atwood said the bottles in which the samples were taken had probably been contaminated by something other than the water, such as germs from hands or a faucet.

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