Fire service issues – a response. 3/27/07
I want to thank Carol Schmaltz, Don Beck, Richard Peterson and others who have responded here with respect enough to sign their names. I’ll try to answer some of your questions and comments.
Carol, you asked; What is it (this whole dispute) really about??
It’s about options for Dunn Township. At the Dunn Township annual meeting on March 14, 2006 there was a ballot vote asking the question; Should the Dunn town board enter into a 20 year service agreement with the PRFD to fund a new fire hall? The results were 12 in favor and 30 against. Almost 3/4th’s against. That tells the Dunn township supervisors our people were not in support of the fire hall to be built in Pelican Rapids. That tells us that Dunn people want options. Detroit Lakes is an option.
There is no doubt that response time to an emergency is critical. In February, at a meeting at Orland Ohe’s barn,the township supervisors from all nine townships and the city of Erhard put together a list of questions to ask of the city/fire chief. One of the questions asked was ‘why doesn’t PR and DL have a mutual aid agreement’, and ‘wouldn’t it be a good idea if the PR fire department went to the DLFD and get a mutual aid agreement in place to better serve Dunn Township, among others’. Richard Peterson echoed that sentiment when he said; “I hate to see the PRFD not in a mutual contract with DL because it does work both ways.” If we have a mutual aid agreement, will there still be ‘inferior service’? Mr. Steeves has shared with me that he has talked to the DLFD and that a mutual aid agreement will take time. If response time is truly your concern, Carol and Don, maybe you could urge Mr. Steeves to move forward on this issue. A mutual aid agreement should have been in place years ago, and should be a priority for the PRFD. The residents along County Hwy 20 on the north side of Dunn, who are closer to the DLFD than the PRFD,deserve just as good of protection as those on the south side of our township.
The DL fire chief did say the fire department would support service to Dunn. Regarding the cost of that service to Dunn, the DL fire chief said; “$48,000 is a rough number we put together.” The fire department doesn’t make the final decision about fire service, their city council does. You may remember that I said the DL City Council hadn’t yet made a decision. I won’t say that DL will offer us fire service, and I won’t say that $48,000 is the cost, until it’s all been approved.
Regarding insurance cost. We hope to have answers to all your questions when we hold a meeting to inform Dunn property owners.It appears that an increase in fire insurance cost is an issue for some in our township. According to Wikipedia there are 1,491 housing units in Dunn Township. We don’t know how many housing units will be impacted either with higher costs (on the south side of Dunn) or lower costs (on the north side). I am unsure as to how widespread an issue this is, but we’ll find out. Remember, this is about Dunn Township as a whole.
There is also a question about cross-county fire service. According to the Sheriff’s Office section of the Otter Tail County website, there are eleven fire (& rescue) departments outside of the county that service areas in our county. At least a couple of those are mutual aid only. Additionally, Pelican currently services Tansem, in Clay County and Rothsay serves part of Wilkin County. Cross-county fire protection seems to be fairly common. Is the cost substantial? Are we sure that the system would have to be changed? Apparently it hasn’t stopped Frazee, Wadena, Ashby and several other fire departments. We’ll have more detail if the informational meeting is held.
The Pippi Mayfield article from 3/14 also says the following; ‘Johnson stressed that Dunn Township just wants the option to use DLFD services. Which fire department is used will actually be decided by a vote of the township board.’ Is offering Dunn an option besides PR such a bad thing? Actually, we may be forced to look for options very soon. No township can sign a contract for over $50,000 without putting it out for competitive bids (Minn Stat. 471.345). With the current proposal from the city, Dunn’s total payments, including what we pay for fire equipment,would be over $49,000,and our payments will certainly go up in the future. We would be required to look at options. The townships are also required by law to accept “the lowest responsible bidder” (Minn Stat. 365.37, & 412.311). Isn’t it prudent to try to figure out which fire department is the best option for Dunn?
Mike Johnson
Dunn Township
38 minutes ago
9 comments:
Almost 1,500 housing units and less than 50 votes?
It is my understanding that the DL fire department isn’t fully equipped to handle rural fires (ie. Tanker trucks, and grass units). What will happen when the city of DL decides they need this equipment to serve us and the only one to foot the bill is Dunn Township. It doesn’t take much to figure out how the costs will go up then! And yes “it appears that an increase in fire insurance cost is an issue for some in our township”, this is a serious issue if you are looking out for Dunn Township as a whole. And how much of Dunn Township is closer to DL than to Pelican?? And the payments will “certainly go up in the future”, remember this is just until the new fire hall is paid for, and then it will be just operating costs. DL’s “rough” figure is ONLY for operating costs. It’s comparing apples to oranges!!
Yes, Apples to Apples. Also, did Wikipedia become a credible source of information again? I suppose Wikipedia can tell us which fire truck can get there faster, right?
The reason many Dunn Township residents weren't at the annual meeting to voice our opinion to remain with the PRFD is that we were at the Section 8AA boys' basketball semifinals in Moorhead. Had I known there would be a vote, I'd have figured out a way to get my vote counted.
Mr. Johnson, do you actually beleive that the township has to get a bid for fire service? Getting bids is for gravel and road work. Come on, call your state township lawyer and they will tell you that you don't. Why are you trying to pull the wool over so many people's eyes? This whole deal is not very good for the people of PR. This has gone on long enough. The vast majority of Dunn township want to stay with the PR department. I'm trying to figure out why you Mr. Johnson are becoming the voice of Dunn. Bobby Dahlman and Wayne Olson have been around for many years. Do they dare say anything by themselves of do they need to clear it with you?
Were the 30 people who voted against the only 30 people in the township who would vote against it? If the Dunn residents knew the issue was up for a vote, the result of the vote would be entirely different, Mike.
Or, you can drag the issue into the summer where the non-residents would come into play. Who then has the cloudt to make the vote? Allow the seasonal residents to decide our fate? Wrong. We already let them help decide the school vote...
Let's take this to the people of Dunn Township and vote. That said, it needs to be a widely publicized time so that all those interested can participate. This would finally put the issue to rest and no one could say their voice wasn't heard. Thank you.
Linnea Strand
Competitive Bidding:For cities, competitive bidding is not required for professional services. I would think fire protection qualifies as a professional service and the bidding laws would be the same for towns/townships.
Mr. Johnson-
Was notification made to Dunn residence that there would be a vote for PRFD service at the 2006 Annual meeting? If so, than I apologize if I overlooked it. I believe that the 42 votes taken in 2006 is not a fair representation of what the majority of Dunn Township residents now want. I agree that in 2006, additional information was needed to make an informed decision. However, since then, a lot of additional information has been gathered and I believe that if another vote was taken, the result would be different.
At the 2007 Annual meeting, you stated that a ballot vote would be taken in June in reference to PRFD vs. DLFD. However, you also stated that it is the Dunn Township Board's decision on where we will receive fire service and not Dunn resident's decision. My concern is that the Board will make a decision based on what the Board wants and not what the residents want.
I agree that it would be benficial for there to be a mutual aid agreement between PRFD and DLFD and hopefully progress will be made in that direction. However, right now we need the most effective coverage that is a available to us.
Also, the cross-county fire service currently in place in Otter Tail County has been in effect since prior to 1995 and prior to the new E911 and GIS mapping system implementaion.
In response to your explanation of MN. Statute 471.34. It also states that "If the amount of the contract is estimated to exceed $50,000, sealed bids shall be solicited by public notice". Are we getting sealed bids by public notice?
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