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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes 13 January 6,2004 Page 13 1 an average of 15 years and that's because St. Anthony is a small community. Mr. Lundeen 2 stated that he thinks the location at the top of the hill will be a problem for seeing traffic coming 3 or going. He asked what the alternative sites were. 4 5 Mayor Hodson stated that the alternative sites were published several times and also mentioned 6 tonight. 7 8 Bill Volna, 3501 Coolidge Street, stated some residents started coming to meetings about a year 9 ago because they were concerned and have gone through this countless times. He stated that last 10 spring there were 600 calls but they laid a hose only four or five times. He stated they argued for 11 small high-speed vehicles to bring the medical equipment but instead a big fire truck responds 12 and that makes no sense at all. 13 14 Mr. Volna stated that it is curious to him that Mr. Ranallo indicated the ambulance arrived prior 15 to the fire truck, which does not say much for the response time. He stated that last May he 16 spent time at the Council meetings, and it came up again tonight, about locating the fire station 17 on the top of the hill. Mr. Vo1na stated that in the last few days he talked to a friend at MnDOT 18 who said, off the record, that it is not a good site for a multitude of reasons and that they may 19 even have to buy the house to the north to satisfy the line of site requirement. Mr. Volna stated 20 another_issue is the turning radius of a large fire truck. It may be tight and the fire truck could 21 invade the south-bound lane during the turning movement. Mr. Volna stated that the County is 22 available to do the study, for sure. 23 24 John Mondati, 3420 Highcrest Road, stated the medical calls are a serious issue that the Council 25 has not addressed. He stated there are too many medical calls and a task force should be formed 26 to bring down the number of medical calls. He commented on a friend of his who had a heart 27 attack and stated that none of the businesses have a full aspirin tablet that could save lives. Mr. 28 Mondati stated he told the Council about the need for a defibrillator and now each of the police 29 cars have defibrillators. He stated that police officers are trained just like fire fighters and if a 30 squad car can get there fast, they can address medical problems. He suggested that a paramedic 31 be put on the force during the time when most heart attacks occur and that the City should 32 address how to reduce the number of medical calls. Mr. Mondati stated he thinks the number 33 can be cut in half. 34 35 Mr. Mondati stated that when he fractured his leg, it took 20 minutes before the ambulance 36 arrived. He added that when he had an appendicitis, he drove himself to the hospital. He urged 37 the Council to make some changes to save people lives since the fire truck does not get there 38 first, the police squad gets there first. Mr. Mondati noted there are very few fire calls, but a lot 39 of medical calls and urged the Council to do something about it. 40 41 There were no additional public comments. 42 43 Councilmember Horst thanked the citizens for getting involved and talking to their neighbors. 44 He stated a petitioner also came to his house and they discussed this issue. He stated that a lot of 45 assumptions are being stated, such as assuming fire departments are always bad neighbors when 46 others have praised having a fire department come in. He stated he does not know of many fire