Fire district to take over public safety building

For the second time in less than a month, it seems a major piece of Cloquet real estate will change hands for the price of $1.

Last time it was Carlton County selling the former Shaw Library building to the Carlton County Historical Society for $1.

This time it is the City of Cloquet offering the combined police and fire station to the Cloquet Area Fire District for $1.

CAFD will likely take over ownership of the building early next year, after the police move into a combined City Hall/Cloquet Police Department building in what is currently Members Cooperative Credit Union at 101 14th Street.

It is a giant game of musical chairs. First, MCCU announced its intent to build new on Highway 33. Then the city of Cloquet purchased that building and is moving both City Hall and the police department into the existing MCCU building in the spring of 2019. Carlton County has agreed to buy the current Cloquet City Hall for $750,000 once it's vacated. And now the fire district is going to take over the entire Public Safety building.

CAFD chief Kevin Schroeder said the transfer is a great thing for the fire district, but cautioned that it is not a panacea.

"It will be huge," said Schroeder during an interview Tuesday at his office at CAFD Station 2 in Scanlon, which houses CAFD administration and most of the training equipment. "We have a number of issues related to separation of staff and facilities - management by telephone is not ideal. This will go a long way toward addressing that on a temporary basis."

It isn't a long-term fix, he said, as the property lacks adequate space for training, storage and even parking for staff.

But it is the right place at the right time for the fire district, which saw its requests at the state legislature for the ability to issue general obligation bonds and/or state bonds to pay for a new combined fire station fail for a third time last year when Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the Omnibus Tax Bill.

Had the legislation passed, Schroeder said they had hoped to break ground on a new $10 million building in August, on donated land at the corner of 22nd Street and Highway 45.

But it didn't. Now they will try a fourth time at the legislature in 2019, and create a better space for the fire district and its employees in the meantime.

A short-term solution

The new arrangement will allow CAFD administration to move their offices into the existing CPD offices, and the fire district will remodel other spaces to create more living and sleeping space for its full-time firefighters.

"Our current dorm rooms are the old (1967) jail cells from the police department. Although we took the bars off," Schroeder said with a chuckle, before adding that they currently also have two beds in cubicles in the basement training room.

He explained that the building was sized for four-person shifts; now their maximum shift size is nine, although it averages closer to 7-8 in the summer.

Boldt Construction estimated that it will cost CAFD approximately $357,000 in immediate repairs to "ensure the functionality" of the Public Safety building for the next 3-5 years.

As part of the arrangement with the city, although the fire district is buying the building for $1, it will be required to share any profits made by a future sale of the building (after subtracting the cost to remodel) with the city of Cloquet. The building was appraised at $500,000.

A long-term problem

Schroeder said the fire district began researching a new combined fire station around 2015, when the city asked CAFD to vacate the building so Cloquet could remodel and create a better, more modern police station.

Originally, the city planned to spend close to $6 million to tear down the fire department side of the Public Safety Building and rebuild/remodel the police department. The purchase of the MCCU building means the city will spend only about half that money and get a new police building and a new city hall.

"The MCCU move gives us time and it saves the city money," Schroeder said. "It's a good thing all around. And frankly, this is the only space in the city where there's room for us."

There just isn't enough room to make it a long-term solution, he said.

In addition to the issue of increased staff - needed because the number of calls has doubled from 1,500 to 3,000 since 1990 - there is the fact that fire trucks and the equipment needed to train fire fighters come in mostly large sizes.

"Even with the additional space, we can't fully combine the Cloquet and Scanlon fire halls," he said. "It gives us office space, not additional operations space."

Right now, CAFD stores four different trailers for training at Scanlon: a live burn simulator, a driving simulator, a forcible entry and ventilation simulator and a training tower for ladder search and rescue and rope rescue.

"We do most of our training here in Scanlon," he said. "It's the only spot big enough. Even shift training, if you're using water, and vehicles are limited on Cloquet Avenue because of the size of equipment and drainage. With homes on three sides of us, it's an issue if you're going to simulate smoke. And it's not like we can spray water across Cloquet Avenue."

Schroeder said CAFD has spent close to $300,000 in research and planning a new facility, although $250,000 came from a Bush Foundation grant. A row of eight binders lines the side of his desk, representing each phase of planning except for final engineering and construction documents. The land for the new fire hall was donated to CAFD by Jardin, before the company was sold and the match mill closed.

Schroeder is optimistic that the fourth time will be a charm for the fire district at the state level. He's even hopeful that some or all of the costs of building a new combined fire district could make it into a state bonding bill.

"At one point we had state bonding to pay for it," Schroeder said. "So if had gone through last year, it would have been at no cost to local taxpayers. Worst case, the money would be paid back like a new school or any other government building, paid back through taxes over 30 years."

Even if the legislature and the new governor finally pass the CAFD request for the ability to issue general obligation bonds or includes the project in the next round of state bonding, it would still be at least two years before the new building could be completed, Schroeder estimated.

So being able to stay in the existing building is a good backup plan.

"We're not taking anything for granted," Schroeder said.

And the price is right.

Fire fighters get the gift of clean air

The Cloquet Area Fire District was awarded a $381,500 grant from the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grant program to buy all new self-contained breathing apparatus.

It will add up to 54 units between the five different stations.

"It is the most critical piece of equipment we have now," said CAFD chief

Kevin Schroeder. "It's what allows us to enter a smoky or chemical environment. It's what allows us to do our job. It is the life-and-death piece. It allows us to breathe pure air in any environment we're in."

The money had been budgeted as part of the CAFD expenditures, but now the new units won't be paid for through local tax dollars.

Schroeder said some of the existing equipment dates back to 1995, and explained that the federal government sets new standards every five years.

"The technology is vastly improved," the fire chief said. "So we are several generations behind what is considered current and state of the art.

He hopes to order the new breathing units soon and have them arrive during the first quarter of 2019.