Fire district aims to boost call for new hall

While the Cloquet Area Fire District board didn’t discuss whether to move forward on design development for a new building Nov. 20, it did approve an eight-month contract with a marketing firm to promote the district’s legislative priorities, including its desire to build a new station on 22nd Street in Cloquet.

The district will pay Cloquet-based marketing firm Promoting Me up to $65,000 to develop a communication strategy, coordinate public meetings such as open houses, and conduct community surveys, among other tasks.

“I’m seeing more and more we’ll be having a need to create community understanding of where we’re at, what’s going on different taxations, and it hasn’t been adequately done and I’m hoping to see that really change especially online,” said Sheila Lamb, a city councilor who represents Cloquet on the CAFD board.

To fire chief Jesse Buhs, using a marketing firm will mean the district’s push for a new building to replace Station 1, a subject of conversation and fits of planning for over six years, won’t come as a surprise to the public.

Meeting minutes show that early in 2018, architecture firms LHB and Five Bugles Design completed design development for a $14- to $15-million facility, but the project was put on hold when funding prospects in the state legislature changed. Since then, construction costs for the same building have soared.

To ensure the CAFD’s roughly $425,000 investment in design wasn’t wasted, the architectural duo reworked the design and presented plans for a smaller, possibly $18 million building.

“I don’t think this building can get any smaller unless you totally change your operations,” said Robert Krzyzanowski, director of emergency services for Five Bugles.

The revised plan scraps a dedicated ambulance bay and driveways leading to the highway, reduces parking, and cuts square footage by nearly 7,000 feet. Now the board is faced with whether to pay the $200,000 it would cost for the next stage of design development, which will give them a more accurate price tag.

The board discussed how a shovel-ready plan could improve their odds of getting grants and state funding.

“My point is we’ve got to get this done so you can go after outside money. If you wait too long, legislators aren’t going to see this work and neither are other outfits,” board member Marshall Johnson said at last month’s meeting.

Despite Johnson’s insistence on a November decision, the district is still wrestling with how to pay for the next step.

Without outside money, local taxpayers would shoulder the whole cost. Citing an estimate by Ehlers public finance advisors, Buhs told the Pine Knot News that a 25-year bond for $18 million at 3.5 percent interest would add $37 and $89 to the existing ambulance and fire levies for a $225,000 home.

Those numbers drive the district’s primary goal of easing that burden on local taxpayers by securing outside funding and are why it has long sought legislative support.

Even if the building project does crumble in the end, Buhs said the alternative would be a “complete gut” remodel of the current building. Consequently, he said Station 1 personnel would have to temporarily move to another facility with all the amenities needed to sustain their operations. He’s not sure that would be possible.

There is no estimate on how much a remodel would cost, Buhs said, because such an analysis would cost the district money to gain details for “an answer that we’ve already been given: that architects, consulting firms, others just saying that this is not the right space for us.”

As an example, he said, proximity to emergency vehicles when training onsite is an advantage the new site could have over a remodel.

The space needed to grow is a factor board members have considered with a new facility and one Buhs said the current landlocked location can’t offer.

Since Perch Lake and Cloquet formed the special taxing district in 2009, four communities have joined in some capacity, and the call volume continues to go up. October’s year-to-date call volume was 2,852 — a 7-percent increase.

Pay bump

After months of negotiation, the CAFD board voted to approve a two-year contract which includes wage increases with the Local 880 firefighter and paramedic union.

The most significant change, union president Dan Cyson said, is the 4- to 6-percent wage adjustment, plus a 4-percent cost-of-living adjustment.

“For the last several contract cycles, we’ve steadily fallen behind as far as our standing in the state of Minnesota,” Cyson said. “This one is a significant step forward to getting us towards the median.”

At the end of 2023, a firefighter/EMT in Step 1 of the compensation schedule was at 81 percent of the $73,447 median, according to an analysis of the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters 2024 wage study. The wage study data is current as of July 2024.

In 2025, their starting pay will be $63,001. That puts the CAFD’s starting pay at 86 percent of the median, though it is possible other departments have also adjusted their pay since then.

Cyson and district leadership have long highlighted wages as a challenge for recruitment and retention.

“I will stand by this group of people to my last breath because not only do I get to work with them in this capacity [as a board member], I have seen these men and women in action,” Lamb said last year regarding the district’s competitiveness. “So as far as sustainability, I think there’s enough people in our region that feel the same way I do, that we will do whatever we can to ensure that sustainability.”

Wages and benefits for non-union and administrative staff mirror the union’s. The fire chief’s compensation is managed separately with the board.

Taxation hearing

The fire district will hold a public tax hearing on its budget and the amount of property tax it is proposing to collect to pay for the costs of services the district will provide in 2025. The public hearing is at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 at the Carlton County Government Services Building in Cloquet.