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5. Second Fire Station at Manning_Mayberry Site Staff Report Date of Meeting: October 7, 2020 To: City Council From: Mike Hinz, Fire Chief Re: Second Fire Station Background: A second fire station was on the CIP for many years, but was never acted on and at some point was removed from the CIP list. 2 years ago I re-introduced the idea of a second fire station to the CIP committee and they believed that it was a good idea. The 2040 comprehensive Plan has added a rural commercial and rural mixed use to the area near the Big Marine Store. Part of the plan calls for improved sewer and city services to this area. The current planned location of the second fire station is in very close proximity to this planed increased density, less than a half of a mile away (current lot or new acquired land). Scandia has many pockets of dense population, and one of the largest is the Bliss. This new station would cover the Bliss as well as many smaller groupings of homes on Manning and also around Big Marine Lake & Bone Lake. So, some of the benefits of a second fire station located on Manning Ave (the old big marine school property) are as follows. -First is the fact that adding in this location would carry our ISO rating of 6 to any property located within 5 road miles of the station. A few years ago ISO changed their rating for fire departments; this changed the rating for anyone more than 5 road miles from the station to a 10 which is the worst rating. We received many calls from residents in the bliss stating that there insurance was increasing by $600-$1,200 per year. -Second: We would have a better response time to the areas on the west side of the city. Scandia is one of the largest, if not the largest city (in square miles) in Washington County. -Third: this location would increase our recruiting area. We have an 8 minute response time for recruiting. We have tried different minimum response times ranging from 15 minutes to our current 8 minutes. We found that anything over the 8 minutes and the new members ended up quitting due to lack of the ability to make a call. -Fourth: I started this process with the thought of a joint fire station with Forest Lake fire. I meet with the Forest Lake Fire Chief a couple of times to create a plan. After a few meetings we determined that a joint station would not work due to the fact Forest Lake already has a fire district setup with Columbus Township and to try and merge part or all of Scandia into 1 fire district would be very difficult and costly. We did however come to the conclusion that the city of Forest Lake would most likely be willing to look at the option of contracting with Scandia to cover part of the East side of their city since they are also affected by the new ISO rating system. Proposed station Design; The second fire station would be a substation and will not be as full functioning as our current station is. We would start out with moving our Engine 2 (this would also be used for Rescue call) and Tender 2 to this location. In the future we would look to possibly add a brush truck, rescue truck and a boat to Station 2. The cost estimate is based on a pole barn style building, with cement floor, heat/ac, an area for turnout gear storage, gear washing room, bathrooms, radio/call room, small office and small gathering room. It would also have a septic and residential well with the possibility of a larger well in the future or a large cistern for filling trucks. At this time we would have to bring the trucks to station 1 to refill with water and all training would be at station 1 for class room presentations. If we were to purchase a larger property in the same area we could look at adding space to the building for Public Works to use for storage of equipment for that area of the community and you could also look at outside storage of road maintenance materials on that site. Fiscal Impact; If we use the existing property that the city owns we anticipate the following costs Well - $15,000 Septic - $15,000 Building – 90,000 Paving - $60,000 If we were to purchase property to include additional future public works use. We anticipate the following additional costs. Land acquisition - $70,000 (2.5 acres) Enlargement of building - $25,000 Outside storage for salt/gravel - $20,000 Enlarged paved area – 25,000 37 6.2 © Bolton & Menk, Inc - Web GIS 0 Legend City Property for Proposed 2nd Fire Station This drawing is neither a legally recorded map nor a survey and is not intended to be used as one. This drawing is a compilation of records, information, and data located in various city, county, and state offices, and other sources affecting the area shown, and is to be used for reference purposes only. The City of Scandia is not responsible for any inaccuracies herein contained. Disclaimer: 9/8/2020 12:24 PM 263 Feet City Limits Parcels (7/1/2020) Lot Lines Parks Scandia19.sid Red: Band_1 Green: Band_2 Blue: Band_3