08.d ADDITION Group Home Letter - 21523 Oland Ave N.
December 19, 2026
Jeff Felz
Community Living Options 26022 Main St.
Zimmerman, MN 55398
RE: Group Home at 21523 Oland Ave N., Scandia, MN
Dear Mr. Felz:
The Scandia City Council has received a report from staff regarding the significant impacts on
public safety services caused by your group home at 21523 Oland Ave. N. The Council was
concerned to see the 2025 data. The report is enclosed.
The Council wants to hear from you about how you plan to properly staff your group homes and
support the residents with the appropriate level of services and supervision to reduce the
number of police, fire, and ambulance calls. We are concerned about the health and safety of
residents and the impact on the community.
We look forward to your response. Sincerely,
Steve Kronmiller
Mayor
cc: Scandia City Council
City Administrator Kyle Morell
City Attorney Amanda Johnson
Fire Chief Mike Hinz Deputy Jacob Anderson
Kevin Kane, MHealth Fairview EMS
Enc: Report to City Council for January 20, 2026 Meeting
1
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: December 16, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Kyle Morell, City Administrator
Re: 21523 Oland Ave. N. Impacts on Public Safety Services
At a previous Council meeting, Deputy Jacob Anderson brought to the Council's attention the large
number of calls that the Sheriff's Department, along with the Scandia Fire Department and M Health
Fairview EMS, have been making to a single Scandia address: 21523 Oland Ave. N. This address,
an adult group home owned by Community Living Options, Inc. (a for-profit company), seemed to
be consuming a disproportionate share of Scandia's public safety and first responder resources
compared to all other Scandia residential properties, including other similar group residential
facilities.
Impact on Public Safety Services, 21523 Oland Ave. N.
Staff worked together to compile data to document the issue. The following table shows the number
of calls for service to the 21523 Oland address since March 1, 2025:
2025 Public Safety Calls, 21523 Oland Ave. N.
# Calls to
This Address
Total Calls
City
Percent
Police (Washington County Sheriff) 34 893 3.80%
Fire (All Types) 12 240 5.00%
Ambulance (M Health Fairview EMS) 12 225 5.33%
Total, All Services
58 1,358 4.02%
Calls to this address were 4.02% of all calls to police, fire, and EMS since March 1, 2025
2
Staff believe that the call data actually underestimates the demands from this property. Because of the
way call reports are coded, a response to the street in front of the home, or a call to a location elsewhere
in the neighborhood involving a resident of the home, cannot be calculated from the data without a one-
by-one review of each call report. The Fire Chief estimates that reports not coded to the address might
add 10 to 15% to the number of calls.
The pie chart below shows the breakdown of the 58 calls to the residence at 21523 Oland among police,
fire, and ambulance services since March 1, 2025.
Based on the number of police and fire calls, we can estimate that 21523 Oland Ave consumed a portion
of Scandia's 2025 police and fire budgets. N., as shown on the following table and pie chart:
2025 Share of Police and Fire Budgets
21523 Oland Ave. N.
Percent
2025 Total Budget
Share, This
Address
Police 3.80% $ $194,293 $ 7,383.13
Fire 5.00% $ $390,332 $ 19,516.60
Total
4.40%
$ $584,625
$ 26,899.73
Scandia's dedicated police resources are the equivalent of one full-time deputy sheriff, per our contract
with Washington County. Excessive calls to a single location mean the deputy is taken off patrol of the
rest of the city. Resources must be diverted from other parts of the county served by the Sheriff's
Department, and for other emergency calls.
Every time the Fire Department responds to a call, it involves paging 10 to 15 people for at least one
hour of paid-on-call service, along with equipment. If there are multiple calls at the same time,
resources become unavailable for other community needs, increasing response times. Additionally,
neighboring communities' resources are also impacted if mutual aid agreements are activated.
58%21%
21%
Percentage of Calls
Police (Washington
County Sheriff)
Fire (All Types)
Ambulance (M Health
Fairview EMS)
3
Scandia does not budget for or pay for ambulance services directly. M Health Fairview EMS serves
this address. Service fees are incurred only when the ambulance transports someone to the hospital.
The fees from the billed calls support the entire cost of EMS service. In 2025, only about 8% of all
calls to 21523 Oland Ave. N. were billed. The cost for the remaining calls was borne by the billings
in M Health Fairview's entire service territory, which includes neighboring communities in
Washington and Chisago Counties
2022 Ambulance Calls, 21523 Oland Ave. N.
# Calls This
Address
Percent
Billed 3 7.89%
Not Billed 35 92.11%
Total 38 100.00%
Other Group Homes
Community Living Options owns another similar group home in Scandia, at 22640 Meadowbrook
Ave. N. The City was having similar problems with that home in 2023, and a meeting between the group
home owner, staff, and city staff seemed to help reduce the number of calls to that facility.
Recommendations
Staff recommends that we contact Community Living Options, present them with this information,
and ask them to provide the city with their plans to address the excessive demands on public safety
services. We believe that the owner of this for-profit business should be able to reduce the excessive
service demands by properly staffing their group homes and delivering the appropriate services and
support to their residents. The city could, by ordinance, enact a fee system to bill property owners
for excessive calls for service. This would take some time to develop, as we would not want to
discourage residents from calling for emergency services when necessary.