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<br /> <br /> <br />Lino Lakes Public <br />Safety Department <br />Memo <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />DATE: June 10, 2020 <br /> <br />TO: John Swenson, Public Safety Director <br /> <br />CC: Dan L’Allier, Deputy Public Safety Director – Fire Division; <br />Craig Menne, Station #2 District Chief <br /> <br />FROM: Brian Finke, Station #1 District Chief <br /> <br />RE: Fire Department apparatus update and disposition proposal <br /> <br />Many people come to Lino Lakes to enjoy the many perks of Anoka County’s largest park and <br />Lino Lakes’ residents pride themselves on having such a beautiful natural resource in their back <br />yards. With having this vast natural resource in the middle of our city, comes the great <br />responsibility of the Public Safety Department to have adequate equipment to respond to a <br />variety of calls within in the County Park and waterways. Being able to reach the public in the <br />event of an emergency while they are stranded on the water is currently a great burden on our <br />Public Safety staff. Most of the lakes in the County Park are very shallow and with shallow water <br />comes the issue of vegetation growing to the surface the lakes throughout the park very quickly <br />every spring. The boat we received from the split with Centennial Fire is an inadequate piece of <br />rescue equipment for the type of waterways located throughout Lino Lakes. The current Zodiac <br />boat is sufficient for accessing 90% of Centerville Lake and 50% of Peltier Lake. Once the high <br />water in the spring resides and the weeds have grown to the surface of our waters (typically in <br />May), the Zodiac boat cannot access any waterway that does not have a DNR maintained boat <br />launch (Centerville and Peltier Lakes). The Zodiac boat needs at least 18”-24” of water to <br />operate (depending on the amount of people in the boat) and cannot be used in most of our <br />neighborhood holding ponds either. The 14’ Zodiac boat does not have enough space to transport <br />a back boarded patient (unless placed on top of the sides of the boat), the staff needed to get the <br />patient into the boat and is initiate for delivering patient care. <br /> <br />Our Public Safety personnel had two calls, for three stranded victims in the last year where they <br />were unable to reach the patients with the current Zodiac boat. One call was on Marshan Lake, <br />neither our Zodiac boat nor Forest Lake’s fan boat was able to reach the victim and a citizen in a <br />canoe was the one who rescued the victim an hour after the original call to 911. The second call <br />was for two victims stranded on a jet ski at the far north end of Peltier Lake; Forest Lake, <br />Washington County, Anoka County and the DNR was not able to assist our staff with the proper <br />66