04-03-2003 Council Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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r MINUTES OF THE ORONO NAVARRE TOWN MEETING Thursday, March 13,2003 7:00 o'clock p.m. Rice asked how much the building and trucks would cost. Moorse stated that the estimated cost to construct and equip a Navarre station would be $ 1.5 million. Murphy indicated Orono would have paid SI .2 million toward the Mound fire station. White reiterated that the City cannot afford to continue to pay for 20-50% of these other community’s budgets, when it could create its own service. Clem and Barb Birch, 2205 Bayview. Mr. Birch questioned the trade off of service in order to gain control of the Are station. Confident in the service provided by Mound, he was concerned that this happened relatively quickly. Nygard pointed out that the City had little choice but to move on this decision, since Mound had insisted that if we continue to get their service we renew our contract and commit to paying for theit new building. While Sansevere agreed that Mound had offered phenomenal fire service over the years, he had difficulty with the fact that their Council would not give Orono any leadership or ownership in the building it would help fund. Given the size of the investment, Orono felt the Mound City Council should listen to their concerns. He explained that three years should be adequate time to provide Orono with quality responders. He maintained that if the Council had any doubt, they would not have proceeded with this action. Murphy concurred, stating that this development had caught the Council by surprise as well. He explained that only one year ago did they learn what was going on. The City then began to unders. ■ the escalating costs of providing fire service and that not everyone else w'as as concerned about the long term costs as Orono was. We were in a position where the City was forced to negotiate contracts that would be escalating due to construction of new stations in both Mound and Maple Plain in upcoming years. Murphy stated that the trade off was that Orono would be spending more in the near term, than we would with Mound fire service, however, the long term savings would r.iore than make up the difference. Tim Olson, 2510 Old Beach Road, asked w'hethcr the City had considered a joint fire agreement with Excelsior. He inquired if the SI .5 million included the cost of trucks etc. Murphy explained that, once the Council had realized that the negotiations with Mound were worsening, the Cit}' sent out an REP to other communities to discuss service options. He stated that the City had considered joining the Excelsior Fire District, however, chose Long Lake since they had a change of heart and Orono already had a long term commitment with them. Murphy continued, stating that fortunately. Excelsior agreed to play an integral role in the plan by assisting Orono with its fire consolidation effort, and continues to provide the Cit>' vi'ith a 2007 option. With regard to equipment purchases, Murphy indicated that many purchases can be made more reasonably than they had been led to believe and options for used equipment exist. Jabbour pointed out that several choices presented themselves; the first was to continue fire service with Mound, the second to make a new commitment to Excelsior, and third, continue to partner with Long Lake. Although all would make great partners. Jabbour felt making a $1.2 million dollar contribution to Mound with no equity or authont>- made the least sense. He added that the PAGE 8 of 10