Fire district waits on help from state bills

With Gov. Tim Walz yet to sign the set of state budget bills the Legislature passed over the weekend, Cloquet Area Fire District chief Kevin Schroeder said he was “95 percent sure” that the fire district got one of its three three requests.

Language that will allow CAFD to bond and incur debt is included in the omnibus bill that passed both the House and the Senate. The new language fixes changes made to the bill that created the fire district in 2009. With the fix, the fire district could bond for the cost of a new truck, for example, or the proposed new $10-$12 million fire station.

“The original language submitted by the communities forming the fire district — Cloquet, Scanlon and Perch Lake — and our attorneys was very clear and detailed,” he said. “In committee and conference committee and in the legislative process, adjustments were made and an error inserted regarding what statute they cited. So they took what was crystal-clear language, tried to shorten it up and it became foggy.”

So it’s a relief to have that cleared up on the fourth attempt — last year Gov. Dayton vetoed the entire omnibus bill and killed the proposed CAFD changes with it.

Schroeder said he is disappointed that the other fire districts requests died after making it through a number of steps in the legislative process.

The final omnibus bill did not include money to help CAFD pay for a new fire station, nor did it include a request by CAFD to set its EMS levy at the same rates as those of other ambulance districts in the state.

“All the other ambulance districts in the state receive a preset limit they can go to,” Schroeder said. “Ours is half of that rate. There’s a disparity there that we are trying to fix.”

Schroeder said it’s difficult to get the state legislators to approve the change, because they look at it as a tax increase, versus a disparity in rates between different areas. Cromwell, Floodwood and Esko all get the higher rate.

“It should be a non-issue because we’re only asking for parity with the existing statute, but nobody down there seems to be willing to tackle it,” he said. “It just brings us into line with all the other ambulance services that fund themselves in that manner.”