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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.b. Fire Department Semi-Annual ReportCITY OF ROSEMOUNT XECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR ACTION CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: OCTOBER 6, 1992 AGENDA ITEM: NONE. AGENDA SECTION: FIRE DEPARTMENT SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS PREPARED BY: SCOTT AKER, FIRE CHIEF# AGEN E,� � 3 ATTACHMENTS: AP RO 8 SEMI=ANNUAL REPORT This item is the presentation of the semi-annual report to the City Council. This report is `submitted in written form to provide the council with information as to what has transpired in the past'6 months. No formal presentation of information is scheduled for the council meeting. Any questions which the council would have after reading the report could be answered or, explained in more clarity at the council meeting. RECOMMENDED ACTION: NONE. COUNCIL ACTION: ROSEMOUNT FIDE DEPARTMENT SEMI - ANNUAL RT TO THE CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 1992 Respectfully Submitted by SCOTT AKER, FIRE CHIEF CITY OF ROSEMOUNT Total Membership ----- 33 On Leave ------------- 02 Light Duty ----------- 00 Active Members ------- 31 During 1992, so far, we have not seen much of a turnover in the membership of the fire department. We are beginning to stay fairly stable and that will be a good situation to be in. We still have quite a few members, however, who are considered rookies. A rookie is a person who has been on the department for less than two years and is still in the process of being trained. The fire department has been accepting applications as usual and trying to process them into becoming active members. We had ten applications during the last few months. Those ten people were contacted and encouraged to come to an orientation meeting. Seven of the ten people, came to the orientation meeting and then six of those persons showed up for the agility test. Everyone who showed up for the agility test passed and five of those six decided to continue and show up for the written portion of the testing and the oral interview. Out of those six people, five continued to express an interest in becoming a member of the fire department. Budget constraints allow us to process only three persons at this time. Those three persons scoring highest on all phases of the selection process have been forwarded to Dr. Detlefsen and hopefully we will be hearing soon as to their fitness to be a firefighter. EQUIPMENT Aerial/Elevating Platforms (35180) ------ 1 Pumpers (35181, 35182, 35183) ----------- 3 Grass Rigs (35192, 35194) -------------------- 2 Tankers (35195) ------------------------------- l Hose Truck (35196) -------------------------- 1 Rescue Vehicle (3590) ----------------------- 1 Chief/Misc. Vehicle (3598, 3599) --------- 2 Utility/Rescue (3591) ------------------------ 1 As the council is fairly well informed as to what equipment the fire department is using and its current condition, I will only elaborate on a few of our vehicles. Hose Truck (35196): For the last five years we have been without a hose truck, per se, due to budget constraints. Our large diameter hose has been stored lying flat in the back of a pickup truck. This has not been the best situation for the life of this expensive hose or for the ease in using the hose for emergency situations. Our along awaited hose truck chassis 1 has arrived. We are in the process of having the box built for the back of the truck and all of the emergency equipment installed and by late October this truck should be in service. Aerial Truck (35180): This vehicle, as I am sure you are aware by the barrage of bills we have been receiving, -continues to plague us with repairs. Hopefully it can be replaced in the near future by way of a referendum vote. Budget constraints did not allow the City to put away $100,000 in 1991 for the purchase of this vehicle, nor did it allow the City a $200,000 payment in 1992 or this vehicle. For that reason the membership is fairly well convinced that unless a refe endum were approved, there is no possible way that the Cit will be able to put away a $300,000 payment in 1993. If the referendum is not approved, the membership pretty muct understands that we will not be receiving a new aerial truck. Should a referendum be suc approximately one year ago Wisconsin and bringing in s information. They have hu:. preliminary basis and are pl the present time, but hopefu As a side light I would like Apple Valley to investigate aerial trucks. We can use a present time by means of ou and beyond that agreement. house for all kinds of inforn state of Minnesota have any very preliminary stages and situation could work, but it i essful, the aerial truck committee that was formed ias spent hundreds of hours traveling across Minnesota and (es representatives from all over the country to gather ireds of pages of notes and specifications put together on a rining a vehicle that will not only serve the needs of the City at y well into the future. mention that I have initiated some talks with the City of e possibility of sharing large type vehicles as in the case of of there vehicles and they can use any of our vehicles at the mutual aid agreement. This type of sharing would go above have also contacted the Fire Center, who acts as a clearing Lion, and they have indicated to me that no other cities in the ind of a sharing program like this. Again, this is just in the e may find out that there is no possible way that such a worth investigating. TRAINING/EDUCATION In addition to the usual three times per month that all firefighters train in order to keep up- to-date on those necessary skills, I usually like to highlight some of the other additional outside training that our members volunteer for. For the last two years we have had the opportunity to send a person each summer, courtesy of Koch :Refining, to the Texas A & M University near Houston for flammable liquid training. In the rotation schedule this is our year not to send someone. We will resume doing that again during 1993 and we have volunteers well into the future from our department for that program. We usually have several classes available to us on weekends that a number of our members decide to take part in. This year we have seen a distinct decline in the number of classes being offered, perhaps that a comment on the financial constraints that all cities are finding themselves in. This fall I have received indication that again some classes are going to be offered at various vocational c o lleges around the state and I do know that we have a number K, of firefighters looking forward to those and will be signing up and attending. This year we have had a new opportunity for training. The NSP power plant on Prairie Island in Red Wing must demonstrate each year their ability to handle an emergency should there be a radiation leak. The immediate emergency agencies of Red Wing and Miesville are the primary response agencies to the power plant. Hastings which is just outside the ten mile limit from the power plant serves as the agency to provide decontamination for emergency vehicles and a backup to those initial response agencies. The people that would have to be evacuated from the area are directed to respond to the National Guard Armory in Cottage Grove. There they are provided with temporary shelter, decontamination, and decontamination of their vehicles, pets, and belongings. If a situation occurred at the power plant, the National Guard Armory Cottage Grove would be operating to provide those m services for several days. During that time they wou ecenter.e For thated sevral shift creason they hanges and a large supply of personnel trained to handle that reception sought persons from surrounding departments that could also serve in that capacity. We have had eight firefighters from our department attending that training throughout the summer and participated in the federally run and evaluated full-scale evacuation drill that was held on September 16. This training s are also morwould not e highly trained for any type of a be of benefit if there was an incident at Prairie Island, but our me radiological release. This nuclear training is also rather unique in that because NSP has to demonstrate there ability to do this or lose their license, they also fund all of the training. The City can expect to receive a check for the amount of approximately $1,000 as reimbursement for the time that our people spent in training. So not only did these department members receive valuable training, it was also done at no expense to the City even though the City will benefit greatly from the training. MISCELLANEOUS During the year the department has received a $1,000 donation from the Rosemount Lions towards the purchase of an automatic defibrillator. The cost of such a defibrillator is approximately $7,000. The Council gave direction that we should pursue such a purchase as soon as possible. Therefore the $6,000 balance, which we would be short, is an item in the Capital Improvement budget. We hope to purchase such a device as soon after the first of the year as possible. It seems like quite old business at the present time, but I would like to comment on the fire department's involvement in all of the Leprechaun Days activities. A large majority of our members do look forward to getting out in the public, providing standby services for some of these events, which could be slightly hazardous, and mingling with the citizens. This year was no exception. Several of our firefighters upon returning from the various standbys relayed comments from the citizens on how much they were appreciated, they received commodations on their fine work at various calls that the citizens observed them at. They were also, of course, deluged with questions of the possibility of a new fire station and aerial truck, and had to report that the citizens appeared to be very much in favor of the Phase I facility expansion that is being planned. During the week long event, hundreds of hours were spent by firefighters standing by at these events and by the end of the week it 3 did seem to take a slight toll on the firefighters. I believe that from our point of view a shortened community celebration, as is being talked about for next year, will be welcomed. During this past summer, the City under the leadership of Fire Marshal George Lundy, underwent an ISO evaluati n. We did go from a rating of six to five in the densely populated residential areas of the City. The report we received, although not very specific in nature, did allude to some deficiencies in areas where improvement could be warranted. As soon as the people who conduct these ratings gear down somewhat for the winter months, George Lundy and I plan to sit down with them and find out the specifics as to where we can possibly change some of our practices and improve our rating and also improve our firefighting abilities. One thing we have found out already is that what they rate cities on and what they give points for, is not always synonymous with what increases firefighting efficiency. Th refore, a very close look at their suggestions will be necessary. BUDGET The budget as it is proposed for 1993 has been presented to the City Council numerous times over the past few months. My only comment at this time would be that because of the support that the City Council show the fire department over the past few years, we were able to, make some new purchases of equipment and replace some of those antiques which have been around for quite some time. We pretty much caught up, you could say, with those replacements and purchases and that is why it was possible to present a very bare bones budget this year with only a three percent increase even though there was a six and half percent increase in sales tax and a three to four percent inflation rate. There is also no salary increase proposed f r the firefighters. GOALS As I mentioned in previous reports, one of our goals was to work more closely with the police department within cur own community and with all emergency services agencies that we could come in contact with. We have had mutual aid drills as part of our regular training with the Apple Valley Fire Department and are off to an excellent start on reciprocating sharing idea and improving relationships and our ability to respond to emergency situations. Chief Knutson, with the police department, has always indicated and also demonstrated that he is very willing to work closely with the fire department. We work very closely on an administrative level and also on the street level in handling emergency situations. From what I can tell in talking -with other fire departments, we have one of the best inter- departmental relationships in the area. As an example, I would c Koch Refining. Koch Re: police and firefighters. F handled by their personne able to arrive. There call e a new working plan that was initiated by Lyle and myself with rung does have personnel trained to the same medical level as our r that reason, many of the calls received from Koch are already and, in some cases, have already been transported before we are ig us results in needless expense, unnecessary trips out there, and 4 at times has put us out of position for response to other situations within the City. Our new agreement with them allows them to handle the very minor medical emergencies but still utilize us to the fullest extent for life-threatening situations. Something new that we are planning to initiate on the part of the fire department in the near future, is an expansion of our fire education program. We currently do, and have for several years, gone into the schools during fire prevention week and given the messages to the children, and have seen that those lessons were taken home and shared with the rest of the family. We understand that we do miss a portion of the population with this plan and have hopes of expanding some type of a public education fire program. Another goal that we have is to get the citizens of Rosemount to keep their fire/smoke detectors in operating condition. Everyone is well aware of the valuable protection that these devices can provide when they are working. However, at a large percent of the fires that we respond to we find that these homes did take the step to make sure that their home was equipped with a smoke detector, but several homes either by accident or pure neglect fail to keep them in working condition. We are not 100 percent sure at this point how to address this problem, but I have had some discussion and meetings with our Fire Marshal and you will be hearing more about this in the future. Just to underscore the importance of having a working smoke detector, I would cite the state Fire Marshal's latest report which indicated that the largest percent of those people who are dying in fires are the elderly who need this advance warning and children. PHASE I FACILITY EXPANSION The fire station planning committee which is made up of representatives of the fire department, police department, architects, and the building department has been meeting, working and planning most of the summer. We did a re -analysis and review of the space needs that were identified back in 1990. We have also gone as far as to put those space needs into what the architect calls a block plan. It is not a working blueprint but does closely resemble a floor plan. The committee was quite excited as they believed that they did have a plan that would have provided adequate storage of the fire fighting vehicles, an administrative area that really "worked well" for our type of fire fighting operation, and could have been used as an excellent community meeting area. We have geared down now and will wait to see what is decided in March of 1993. CONCLUSION As in the past I have attempted to keep the report to the council in September as short and concise as possible. Information will be more elaborate in the annual report given in written and oral form at the March meeting. Again, as I have indicated in the past, should there be an instance where council feels that it would be necessary for me to elaborate on anything other than at the two scheduled meetings during the year or when I'm at a council meeting, please feel free to contact me and make your request. I would welcome any input, suggestions, criticisms or questions you may have. 5