05-28-2025 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE WORKSHOP MEETING CITY COUNCIL LITTLE CANADA, MINNESOTA MAY 289 2025 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof a Workshop meeting of the City Council of Little Canada, Minnesota was convened on the 28th day of May 2025 in the Conference Room in the City Center located at 515 Little Canada Road in said City. Mayor Tom Fischer called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and the following members of the City Council were present at roll call: ROLL CALL: In attendance were Mayor Fischer- and City Council Members Miller, Malone, Gutierrez and Kwapick. Absent: none. ALSO PRESENT: Acting City Administrator Laura Linehan and City Clerk/HR Manager Heidi Heller. Little Canada Fire Department: Chief Don Smiley, Assistant Chief Tim Boss, Fire Fighter/ Board Member at Large Reilley Keenan ANNUAL MEETING WITH LITTLE CANADA FIRE DEPARTMENT Chief Don Smiley reviewed the 2024 statistics. He stated there were not any retirements in the last year, but one is expected in August and potentially one more later this year. He reported that two potential new hires are currently going through the screening process and noted that one applicant is already trained. Chief Smiley reviewed 2024 statistics: the fire department responded to 517 calls for service in 2024, which is another record high number. He explained the auto -aid and mutual -aid processes where the adjacent fire departments respond based on who is closer to the specific incident or if additional help is needed. He reported they responded 71 times to auto -aid and nine times to mutual aid. He noted that about 85% of the auto -aid calls are to incidents on the freeway. Mayor Fischer asked if there were any times of the day that are difficult to have enough coverage. Chief Smiley stated that weekend evenings are the hardest to staff. He noted that daytime coverage is good and having two fire fighter city employees available to respond during the day is very helpful. Mayor Fischer noted that Little Canada is the only fire department in Ramsey County that is still fully volunteer, but that could change if it becomes difficult to have enough coverage. Chief Smiley reported that fire department staff volunteer about 400-man hours at Canadian Days each year and do many fire safety events throughout the year. Chief Smiley explained that the department expenses came in about $1,100 under budget for 2024. He noted that insurance costs were less and noted their worker's compensation insurance premium went down about 60% after a change in their policy provider. He stated that fuel and vehicle repair costs were lower and noted that those costs are always hard to estimate. He reported they are usually successful in getting training grant money from the state which allows them to do additional training, such as using the East Metro Public Safety Training Center in Maplewood. Chief Smiley reported that they spent $225,000 from charitable gambling funds. He explained they donated $140,000 to the city's fire fund that is used to pay for fire equipment, gave some small donations to groups and paid to outfit the new ladder truck. He pointed out that the gambling funds were able to be used for the ladder truck outfitting instead of city funds.