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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes • March 10, 1998 Page 13 1 truck fits any particular scheme of emergency service delivery. He recommended the purchase 2 of the truck be canceled and a task force be formed to look at the emergency service vehicle 3 needs of the City. 4 Chief Johnson noted that the St. Anthony capita is half that of Roseville and that Roseville does 5 not go on EMS calls. This purchase would replace a 26 year old piece of equipment that has 6 been patched together with plywood and boards. He stated the City could wait five years but 7 then they may have to buy two or three trucks. He believed the City of St. Anthony would rather 8 have a working fire truck than a new fire station. 9 Cavanaugh noted that during the retreat the first task the Council assigned to themselves was to 10 plan a new fire station for 1998. 11 Mayor Ranallo noted that the City has a fire station. This is not a purchase to buy a new fire 12 truck but to replace an old fire truck. There are times when the City is down to two trucks 13 because the other is in need of repair. 14 Faust stated there are a number of issues here. 6% of calls are fire-related, emergency type 15 situations. The City is looking to spend $221,000 on that issue. The flooding is a 1%event and the City is willing to spend $6 million on that issue. In most cases flooding is not life 7 threatening where fire generally is. He noted Cavanaugh had stated that a drop in the pump 18 capacity rate would not increase insurance premiums. Faust stated he did not believe the 19 insurance companies would standstill when they saw a drop from 5 to 7. The cost of this would 20 be bourne by the taxpayers. He stated he felt the City needed the fire truck. 21 Marks stated the City had developed a strategy long ago to operate with the minimum size Fire 22 Department necessary for safe operation. The cost of the fire operations is high based on the 23 policies set up by the City to provide the fastest response time possible. There has been a lot of 24 input received from the citizens that they like this. Marks noted however, that the City had never 25 looked at the best way to provide these services in the long run. He agreed that there is some 26 value in looking at the best way to provide the services other than fire but stated that this was a 27 totally different issue. 28 Mayor Ranallo stated he would not support a task force looking at this issue. He noted the City is 29 not even following the recommendations of the Storm Water Task Force to purchase the homes 30 at the July 1, 1997 property value. 31 Chief Johnson stated there are options other than purchasing a new fire truck but there are not 32 many options as these three trucks are getting old. A mini-pumper and refurbishing the existing 33 equipment are options. 04 Thuesen stated that as a freshman Councilmember he had felt that this was a difficult decision. 35 He met with Chief Johnson to question the necessity of a new truck. After meeting with Chief