05-25-2016 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MAY 25, 2016 so that it does not have to be redone if the building is expanded in the future. Keis stated that he thought the Fire Department had maxed out their parking spots and just needed more parking. Morelan stated the goal was to do parking expansion now that would work with the overall long-term plan, and he is not sure how many more parking spots are enough. The City Engineer needs to know the long-term goal in order to do a grading plan since he does not want to spend money now and then have to redo the parking lot if a building expansion happens. The consensus was to discuss this at the next Long Range Planning Committee meeting on June 7th at 6:30pm. Chief Smiley introduced the members of the Board of Director that were in attendance. He also stated that Mark Graczyk retired with 23 years of service with the Little Canada Fire Department. He explained that the process to add new recruits will start soon in order to have them start in the fall and attend the firefighter training in January. He stated that there are 32 members on the Fire Department now. Chief Smiley reviewed the 2015 statistics, calls for service and the fire incident summary. He explained that most fire departments report their incidents to the state, where the information is used nationwide to track how fires are started, such as tracking specific make and model of vehicles or appliances. He noted that if a certain product has caused multiple fires, the information could be used for issuing recalls. First Assistant Chief Morelan reviewed the 2015 operating expenses, and noted that they were $20,000 over budget. He explained that it is impossible to predict how much will be needed for vehicle repairs. He noted that last year the budget was over $11,000 just in vehicle repairs, with another $12,000 repair to a truck that blew a tire and caused body damage, but insurance covered that repair cost. He stated that the budget was over $4700 for outside instructors because of some different propane training that was expensive and they had to pay for the gas used. Montour asked about the duty crew budget since it appears to not have all been used. Assistant Chief Morelan stated that section of the budget does not account for payroll taxes, which are in a different account. He stated that they have had good staffing so the hours budgeted for duty crews were reduced in 2016 from four hours a week to three hours. Assistant Chief Morelan reviewed the Fire Department's Capital Improvement Plan, which includes a new video camera for recording drills and meetings, and the necessary wiring to replay from camera; a station alert system that works with Ramsey County's new dispatching system and will display call information on electronic message boards in the fire 1)