Local Mayors and Officials Discuss Public Safety Priorities

(KNSI) – On Thursday afternoon, local mayors and public safety officials held an open house community event focused on public safety priorities.

Sauk Rapids Mayor Kurt Hunstiger and St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis hosted the event. Kleis explained to KNSI News one area that can be examined is how cities can save money when purchasing gear for the police and fire departments by working together. “Maybe we can look at collaboration on building and buying equipment. Trucks are expensive and take a long time to get. How do we collaborate in any way? We already do it when it comes to mutual aid.”

St. Cloud and surrounding communities provide mutual aid for one another during a large scale emergency or fire. The help could be on the scene or by covering when a department is busy in case of another fire.

Officials say another thing that would help make the community safer would be a station to serve the area around Tech High School. The population density has exploded on the south side, but the closest department is Fire Station Five near Interstate 94 and County Road 75, about five to seven minutes away. According to the International Association of Firefighters, fire doubles in size every minute. Sources at the St. Cloud Fire Department say roughly 90% of the time, crews can respond to a call within 4 minutes of being dispatched. With the rapid pace of population growth in the neighborhoods surrounding Tech, longer response times due to the lack of a fire station quickly put life and property in jeopardy. Fire Chief Matt Love explained to KNSI News that reducing response times in one part of the city will make response times quicker in town and around the area because other crews won’t have to cover for another station. Earlier this year, the St. Cloud Fire Department signed a ten-year contract with Waite Park to take over their fire service because they can’t get enough volunteer firefighters.

In November, the city will ask voters to pass a resolution to fund and build a new station. Further details will be released soon, according to Kleis. “Within the next several weeks, we’ll have that narrowed down to what those dollar amounts are. And then we’ll have informational meetings at all fire stations in St. Cloud.”

Those will happen over the summer.

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