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Lino Lakes, Minnesota – Fire Department Analysis Page 17 <br /> <br />Option 1 – Stay with current Fire Protection District <br />This option is certainly the simplest and at the same time the most difficult option for Lino Lakes. The <br />current District governing system is a 25-year-old document designed when individual community <br />demographics and populations were similar. Today, Lino Lakes is 70% of the district’s population and <br />growing, while Centerville and Circle Pines are mostly built out. This means the disparity will keep <br />growing and more of the service deliveries and fire safety issues will happen in Lino Lakes. <br /> <br />Currently, the joint power agreement has the Steering Committee as the main administrative body of the <br />district, providing each jurisdiction with an equal representation and thus equal vote in policy matters of <br />the district. This process has been unchanged since 1990, while the district has grown and matured for a <br />quarter of a century. <br /> <br />In discussions with officials from all three cities, it was the consensus that it is time to open up the entire <br />Joint Powers Agreement and build something which will work for today and the next 20 years. Not only <br />should representation and voting be reworked, but the funding formula, human resources, accounting <br />processes, and departmental operational guidelines should be updated and reviewed regularly to keep <br />current with District and member city goals and objectives. <br /> <br />The Springsted team believes that the current Centennial Fire District can be improved and could work <br />for years to come, but today it appears that this will require the use of a very experienced dispute <br />resolution professional to get to the root of many issues and find, if not common ground, ways to build <br />consensus. This process will likely require several joint jurisdictional sessions as well as individual <br />meetings between the resolution specialist and each city. Also, once revised and approved the document <br />should be opened and discussed at least every other year to identify areas of concern and address the <br />issues before they become problems. <br /> <br />An important point of consideration is that if the CFD joint powers agreement were amended and <br />updated, it would remain a priority to build a fourth station in the southern part of Lino Lakes to provide <br />emergency services at benchmark standards to the citizens of this area. Additional capital equipment <br />would also be needed to provide the additional service. <br /> <br />Option 2 – Create a new Lino Lakes Fire Department (LLFD) <br />Creating a new Lino Lakes Fire Department is a policy option of the City Council. The new department <br />would already have the fire station at 7741 Lake Drive, as well as apparatus and equipment from the <br />distribution of CFD assets. Additionally, it is likely that some of the current volunteer firefighters who <br />reside in Lino Lakes would join the new organization. However, the City will have start-up costs to begin <br />its own fire department. <br /> <br />As is well understood and documented in this analysis, the new LLFD would need at least one new <br />station to cover the southern area of the jurisdiction (see Section V below). Additionally, there would be <br />fire apparatus and major firefighting equipment to be purchased (see Section VI below). Finally, subject <br />to the dissolution process, it is very likely that additional firefighters would need to be recruited, trained, <br />and certified to bring staffing up to levels adequate to deliver emergency services per national standards <br />and public safety expectations. <br /> <br />23