With Ginny Storlie soon leaving the Lutsen Town Board to take her position as the newly elected Cook County commissioner in early January, the Town Board discussed appointing someone to fill her spot even if it is a short appointment. The discussion came at the board’s November 18 meeting.
“I will be submitting my resignation letter this next month. I suggest you find someone to replace me, you have a lot going on,” said Storlie.
The board of supervisors is made up of three people, Tim Goettl, Andrew Beavers and Storlie.
Lutsen Clerk Amity Goettl had researched and discovered supervisors could legally make that replacement. Storlie’s position will come up for re-election at the township’s annual meeting in March 2015. Goettl and Beavers agreed with Storlie and will look for someone to fill the opening by the next meeting. If they can’t find someone, they will both need to be at every meeting so they have a quorum to legally conduct town business.
Fire Department requests considered
Fire Chief Paul Goettl reported his crew had two calls last month, one to a motor vehicle accident and one to a brush clearing accident where the equipment caught on fire. He said the department’s 20 air packs had been tested and found safe.
Goettl reminded everyone that the Fireman’s Ball is December 6 at Lutsen Resort. Tickets at the door are $35 while early ticket buyers get them for $30. Lutsen fire fighters are currently selling tickets.
“Bruce West, the state’s fire marshal will be the main speaker. We are excited about that,” said Goettl. The event kicks off at 5:30 p.m.
EMS Director Fred Schmidt gave a brief report, saying his crew had 4 calls during the last month. “That’s it,” he said.
A group of Lutsen volunteer firefighters came before the town board to ask if they could use the old town hall community room as a fitness room/weight lifting room. The board had stated some time ago that the room would need to be carpeted and painted, and the firemen thought it would be a good time to make it a fitness center.
However one spokesperson for ALANON and two individuals with AA came before the township to argue that –in the case of the AA groups—they had been using the room to hold meetings for almost 23 years, and ALANON has used the room for its meetings for 10 years. Neither group thought moving to the new, larger community room space would work, because as one said, “When you move, AA meetings have a reputation of going into the tubes.”
Beavers said he had no problems with the fire fighters working out, but he was opposed to turning the small community room into a fitness space. Storlie agreed with him and Tim Goettl suggested they make the small meeting room a multiple use room to accommodate both groups, but Amity Goettl said there would be liability issues for the township if weight lifting occurred there and someone was hurt.
“Could we as firemen explore finding exercise space somewhere in the fire hall?” asked one fireman.
“Yes,” said Beavers.
Firefighters also noted that there is no shower for the fire fighters to use after working on fires, especially ones that contained dangerous chemicals. Supervisor Tim Goettl said it would be prudent for the township to install a chem-shower for the firefighters. “We could hook one up and install it fairly cheaply,” said Goettl, who is a plumber.
The fire fighters will come back with a proposal next meeting to work out in the fire hall and the board will explore costs to put in a chem-shower.
Consolidating fire department and EMS debated
At the end of the meeting there was more fire department discussion when Supervisor Beavers brought up the idea of combining the fire department and EMS departments.
“I’ve heard a lot of good and logical arguments for this. It would streamline the work,” said Beavers. “There would be one boss at a site and it would financially clear up a lot of expenses. Instead of two budgets there would be one budget for us to look at. I know they are doing this at Tofte.”
“That is not true. They aren’t doing this at Tofte. They operate the same way we do with a fire chief and EMS director,” said EMS Chief Schmidt.
“Well it seems to help the two departments to work together to have a single director,” said Beavers.
“That’s not true. The EMS director controls the EMS crews and the fire chief controls the fire fighters at a fire,” Schmidt said.
Amity Goettl said as both an EMS and fire department volunteer there were inconsistencies in the two departments, and she noted that there was a vote to select a fire chief but not a vote to select an EMS director. “As a group we should be able to pick our leader,” said Goettl.
Beavers said these inconsistencies needed to be addressed by the township. Fire Chief Goettl suggested “pulling everything out and laying it on the table and looking at it.”
Tim Goettl said the policies should be looked at over the next few meetings before any decisions are made.
Treasurer Groth, who is also a firefighter asked Beavers to come to some training drills or show up at a fire, “before you make any decisions.” One firefighter in the audience asked, “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?”
Schmidt suggested Beavers get up at 3 a.m. on a call and, “walk in our shoes.”
Beavers said because he has no background as a fire fighter or EMS worker that Groth and Schmidt had a good point. “It would be beneficial to me. I have already talked to people with different viewpoints, but understand, I am not trying to pull the carpet out from under your feet.”
In other business
. The board talked briefly about a Birch Grove Foundation request for an additional $10,000 “over and above what we have already given them,” said Tim Goettl.
“They need to come before us and explain their financial report to us in a way that we can understand it before we as a township consider giving them more money,” said Groth.
The board decided to ask someone from the foundation to come before it and answer questions before the March annual meeting where the township citizens will vote on donating to the foundation next year.
. Tim Goettl gave a park board report and said the memorial park bench was done and only needed a commemorative plaque installed. He said he needed to work on barricading or flagging two areas in the parking lot to safe guard them from being struck by the snowplow and he would get that done in the very near future.
. Amity Goettl asked the board to delay awarding snowplowing and cleaning bids because she hadn’t checked the mail that day and only one bid had been received for each. The board agreed with her suggestion and will ask the current snow plower and cleaner to continue their duties for the next month.
Amity Goettl reported that she had updated several old resolutions and will continue to do so at the board’s request. The board agreed that this work needs to be done and will pay her at her hourly clerk rate.
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