CANFIELD — The Cardinal Joint Fire District Board of Directors heard from fire Chief Don Hutchinson about last week’s power outage during high winds at their meeting Monday.

He told the board a transformer exploded and shut down half the city of Canfield. At the main station, the backup generator would not start. It was found to have a fuel line that was full of water from condensation. Once it was cleared, Hutchison said it started and ran as it was supposed to, but the department was down for approximately 20 minutes.

Hutchinson also said full-time firefighter/paramedic Ryan Pitcher, who was hired in October, is quitting his full-time spot for a job in Green in Summit County, but wants to remain part-time with the Cardinal district. The board approved his request.

Also Monday, board Fiscal Officer Pattie Prince gave a stormy financial forecast.

“We are deficit spending to the tune of $200,000 this year but our carryover balance covers it,” she said.

CJFD Board Chairman Dave Knarr, who serves on the finance committee for the district, said the budget was very conservative on the income side. He said it was the opposite otherwise.

“We were more liberal on spending,” Knarr said. “We can adjust the budget as we get further into the year.”

One area being reviewed is ambulance transports. The numbers are not fully available because of a computer issue that prevented totaling for the month. Hutchison said the department actually had to go to a paper log and later insert the data into the computer program.

He said at the meeting that exact numbers were an estimate because of the problems. Prince said she will continue to monitor the budget monthly and keep the board informed.

One area Hutchison is checking into is fireworks permitting. He said many surrounding fire departments have raised their permit fees.

“We don’t want to make a big profit off fireworks, but at the same time, we don’t want to be losing money on them either,” Hutchison said.

He said the permit application for this year’s Fourth of July fireworks display has been received already.

In other business, the board approved moving the May 25 meeting because of it being Memorial Day and reset it for May 18.