02-24-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, February 24,2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. Chief Van Eyll said the Mission Statement,Vision Statement,and Value Statement have not changed in the past couple of years.There are roughly 40 firefighters; all of them are either EMT or EMR,Firefighter I or II. Eight years is the average years of service;the most senior firefighter, Kelly Shaughnessy has 43'/2 years of service and has been a great asset and mentor to younger members. Dwayne Gluh retired in 2019 with 33 years of service.There are five new probationary members: Hue Alexander,Matt Kulseth, and Richard Loosbrock from Station 1; Kennedy Wright and Clifford 'Rusty" Mayes from Station 2. Chief Van Eyll stated Station 1 and 2 facilities and equipment have not changed much.Minnetonka Beach was added in 2019, and they accounted for 38 total incidents with nothing major except for one gas leak. Orono had 280 calls, down approximately 40-50 from previous years,which he felt was a result of Xcel doing a lot of tree work so there weren't many power line issues when wind storms occurred.The emergency call breakdown has remained fairly consistent over the last several years.There has been a reduction in good intent calls and false alarm and false calls, some of which he attributes to the duty officer program: When there is a false alarm or fire alarm, a duty officer is sent to a commercial or residential building even when cancelled to provide education about proper placement of detectors. Johnson asked what falls under the good intent category. Chief Van Eyll said that is mainly cancelled en route calls, including cancelled fire alarms and medicals they are paged to but the police get there and say the fire department is not needed. Sometimes there is no incident but someone reports a gas odor or smoke and there's nothing in the area when they get there. Chief Van Eyll discussed mutual aid calls statistics: The fire department gave auto aid twice,received auto aid four times, which is when Long Lake Police Department is paged at the same time. They went on 12 mutual aid calls and received mutual aid for eight calls. For the first unit average on-scene time, meaning the first unit that arrives on the scene,Long Lake averaged 7:20 and Orono averaged 8:54, which is a little higher than the previous year.For a lot of the residential false alarm calls they are not going lights and sirens, because 99.9 percent of those are basically burnt food. Johnson asked whether the response times were good compared to surrounding cities. Chief Van Eyll said he has not checked but can do so,but believes they stack up fairly well. The area is a little larger than cities lice Wayzata as opposed to Loretto and Maple Plain, who have more rural areas. Walsh asked if there were any national averages that it could be compared to. Chief Van Eyll stated there are national averages they can look at.The National Fire Protection Agency talks about putting a certain number of personnel on-scene in a certain amount of time, not necessarily that your first unit is there within seven minutes. For example, 18 people on-scene within 12 minutes. Johnson asked if the numbers presented are within the set goals. Chief Van Eyll said their goal is to get the first rig, an engine or medical truck, out the door and heading to the scene before six minutes. The last three years they have been averaging about 6:04-6:05. This will lead to faster response times and gets more people on-scene to take care of a larger incident. Crosby asked about the time involved when someone responds to a page and goes directly to the station. Page 3 of 15