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67 10.24.2014 Memo This team is regional in nature, trained to a higher level for hazardous materials incidents and has been utilized by our city as recently as 2013. Costs associated with the team is ongoing equipment maintenance and insurance which are invoiced quarterly. The cost to the participating cities last year was $1092 per city and New Brighton acts as its fiscal agent. The group has also been very successful in the area of grant funding which has provided both equipment and member specialized training. The joining of this team would be a very similar design as to the SWAT Team that the Police Department is a member of. The experience and higher level training that our members would receive is a major benefit to the department and the city as a whole. This is also another example of how collaboration between cities benefits numerous residents with improved service that they may not otherwise have access to. This also addresses our City Goal to "Increase and Maintain Fiscal Strength" with the action item of "Cooperative ventures with other governments and entities." It is my recommendation that the City Council approve this JPA with the North Suburban Hazardous Materials Response Team. Attached is a Joint Powers Agreement for membership into the North Suburban To Hazardous Materials Response Team. ark Casey - City Manager The recent increase in urban rail traffic has caused a number fire departments to reevaluate how we would respond and mitigate any type of accident or incident within our own city limits. From Hazardous Materials incidents in general have always been a resource and time intensive Mark Sitarz — Fire Chief operation to deal with. The level of training that is required as well as the tools and equipment needed is very cost prohibitive to many area departments. This has prompted the need to look Re at and support a more collaborative effort in building regionalized teams to respond to hazmat North Suburban Hazmat incidents. Team JPA Approval Recommendation In 1992 the Lake Johanna Fire Department (Shoreview, Arden Hills and North Oaks) along with the Roseville Fire Department combined efforts to develop a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) to respond to such events together. Since then Roseville dropped out and the new group is made up of Lake Johanna Fire Department, New Brighton, Vadnais Heights and Falcon Heights. This group now operates under the name of the "North Suburban Hazardous Materials Response Team". This team is regional in nature, trained to a higher level for hazardous materials incidents and has been utilized by our city as recently as 2013. Costs associated with the team is ongoing equipment maintenance and insurance which are invoiced quarterly. The cost to the participating cities last year was $1092 per city and New Brighton acts as its fiscal agent. The group has also been very successful in the area of grant funding which has provided both equipment and member specialized training. The joining of this team would be a very similar design as to the SWAT Team that the Police Department is a member of. The experience and higher level training that our members would receive is a major benefit to the department and the city as a whole. This is also another example of how collaboration between cities benefits numerous residents with improved service that they may not otherwise have access to. This also addresses our City Goal to "Increase and Maintain Fiscal Strength" with the action item of "Cooperative ventures with other governments and entities." It is my recommendation that the City Council approve this JPA with the North Suburban Hazardous Materials Response Team.