Fire district turns focus to staffing

Following the upheaval of the final weeks of 2021, the first Cloquet Area Fire District Board meeting Wednesday, Jan. 19, was positively noncontroversial. The fact that it was held online likely helped — the board will meet remotely as long as Covid numbers are high — as did the rollback of the ambulance district tax increase at the board’s final meeting in December.

After stepping up to serve as chair following Bob DeCaigney’s resignation last month, Brevator Township rep Linda Way was elected chair for 2022 by unanimous vote of her fellow board members Wednesday. Fond du Lac rep Bruce Blacketter was elected vice chair, and brand new Cloquet CAFD board member Doug Wolf was elected treasurer. As president of Northwoods Credit Union and a former volunteer firefighter, it seemed the perfect fit. The board is still looking to fill seats for both Carlton County and St. Louis County ambulance district members. Other board members include Gary Harms (Perch Lake), Marshall Johnson (Scanlon) and city councilors Sheila Lamb and Bun Carlson for Cloquet.

Staffing issues led to many of the discussions with interim fire chief Jesse Buhs and board members, as the district is missing not only administrative and command positions, but also needs to hire more full-time firefighter EMT personnel.

When Buhs stepped into the fire chief position after former fire chief Matt Ashmore was placed on leave for alleged Covid protocol violations and he ultimately resigned, he left his battalion chief position vacant. Another battalion chief spot was not staffed due to ongoing leave. Buhs proposed, and the board approved, filling all the vacant administrative positions on an interim basis, and backfilling any positions where a new vacancy was created.

New appointments include the following:

• Captain Chad Vermeersch to battalion chief;

• Captain Mike Garberg to battalion chief;

• Firefighter Justin Jahr to captain;

• Fire equipment operator Stuart Waters to captain;

• Firefighter Chris White to fire equipment operator.

“It creates more interim officers, but these people will still be in an operations role and available to respond to emergency incidents,” Buhs said. “This just allows me to utilize them to their full authority and to help bolster my management team.”

He expressed thanks to his new team members “for stepping up” into their new roles. “I think they will all be a great addition to the leadership team.”

Later in the meeting, board members voted to start the hiring process for five firefighter EMT or firefighter paramedic positions, a figure that included two current vacancies and three positions the board approved for a July start. They hope to start all five together, to make training more efficient.

Way, who serves on the human resources committee, sought approval to hire all five positions during last week’s meeting because of the difficulty of finding, training and hiring candidates.

Buhs expects the budgetary impact will be offset by the two vacant positions. Because they don’t have a hiring list yet, he expects it may take until April to make the hires.

“Once they are trained and can act independently, it should offset the overtime costs,” he said, referring to the fact that Station 1 was $150,000 over budget for 2021 in OT costs. Many of the overtime costs last year could be attributed to the pandemic, he said.

Additionally, Buhs is beginning the hiring process for a new district administrative director. Board members approved hiring a human resources consulting firm to help with that process.

In other matters last week:

• Buhs reported that CAFD staff responded to 3,313 incidents in 2021, an increase of 138 responses over 2020.

• Buhs also shared news that after ordering new radios, Motorola offered an upgraded model at no additional cost, even though they are normally an extra $2,000 per unit. The new models will allow CAFD personnel to communicate with multiple agencies at larger events.

• Board members approved the Pine Knot News as the official legal newspaper for the fire district;

• Board members approved Frank Yetka of the Fryberger Law Firm as district attorney;

• Board members contracted with Libby Law to act as legislative lobbyist again.