Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl came before a packed house at continuation of the Lutsen Township Annual meeting on Tuesday, August 16 and told the people what a new addition to the town hall and fire hall might look like and what it could mean to the community, and what it would cost.
Last March, Goettl and several other members of the town were asked by the town board to proceed with planning for an expansion of the fire hall/town hall. This is a topic that has been discussed for years.
“We know we need more meeting space. This plan would more than double the size of our current meeting space. It would allow for about 180 people to be seated at tables. There would be room for graduation parties, wedding receptions, lunches, meetings, and training,” said Goettl.
The current meeting space would be left as it is. A new 48’x20’ space would be built on the other side of the building, facing the Caribou Trail. Goettl’s committee has been working with architect Larry Boen. Boen has made some preliminary drawings of what the new spaces would look like, but Goettl stressed that the plans with Boen were still in the early stages, and until his committee got the go ahead, they would stay that way.
A new clerk’s office would also be added. “Right now the clerk’s office is in an old (converted) bathroom. A larger office would allow for more secure storage space and would be more productive,” said Goettl.
Currently the fire hall has four garage stalls. The expansion plan calls for six stalls with the 40’x40’ garage addition. “Right now we have five trucks, one sits outside,” said Goettl, adding that the fire department is adding a new water tender this October, and a parking space will be needed for that vehicle as well.
Besides adding more parking bays, the department would also get office space for the fire chief and EMS director to have a secure space for files, computer, supplies, etc. “Right now I have stuff at my house, Fred has stuff at his house, there’s stuff other places. We need it to be stored in one secure place,” said Goettl.
A separate meeting room/training room would also be included, a big plus because right now fire fighters and EMS personnel often have to go to Tofte for training. It would also allow for more space for equipment storage.
“We should also be able to expand our emergency services because we will have more space to train on special equipment and train for special rescue operations as needed. Right now Lutsen has about the worst ISO rating it could have. These improvements would help us improve our ISO rating, which should help you to lower your home owner’s insurance premiums,” said Goettl.
Projected costs for these improvements are $477,888. The budget/building committee suggests using $83,000 from the building fund; $50,000 from the Town’s Surplus fund; $44,888 from the Truck Fund; and two loans of $150,000 each from Cook County.
“We will ask the county for one loan to be interest free and the other loan to be at 2 percent annually,” said Goettl.
If the county okays the loans, Lutsen residents would have to pay $2.92 per year on a home valued at $100,000. This payment would run for 10 years.
After some discussion a motion was made to accept the $477,888 figure with a 5 percent overrun allowed before the process would have to be stopped and reviewed.
Goettl and the committee will meet as soon as possible with Boen and get more detailed drawings made before going to the county board with a request for loans.
“The sooner we get started the better,” said Goettl. The large group on hand was unanimously behind the effort and thanked Goettl for his presentation.
Leave a Reply