VICTORIA FIREFIGHTERS
MAGNIFICENT RESPONDERS
Five Victoria firefighters attended the August 9^th city council meeting.  One of them, Chief Tim Walsh, was there to recognize the other four men for their work on behalf of Victoria City Council-member Terry Bishop who died suddenly last month.

He introduced (l-r) Gary Sohns, Tom Walsh, Bill Blinstrup, and Steve Dahl.  The Victoria firefighters responded to a possible heart attack and assisted with the Ridgeview ambulance and medical crew.
Said Mayor Mary Thun, "We thank you.  Lisa Bishop was so complimentary to all of you and to the city with calls and letters received.  This is what community is all about.  You responded magnificent-ly."

FIGHTING A CASH WAR

WITH SKINNY CAPITAL AVAILABLE FOR 2008
VICTORIA GET QUINT LADDER TRUCK;
FIRE DEPARTMENT IS THE BIG WINNER

Thursday, August 9th
In preparing to adopt a city budget for 2008, Victoria councilmembers held a first workshop on Thursday, August 9^th.  Victoria Fire Chief Tim Walsh was first on the agenda to defend the $75,000 a year that City Councilmembers transfer into a fund which firefighters use to purchase equipment including new fire trucks.  There is currently $370,000 in that firefighters fund.
"The transfer started in 1995 to alle-viate the ups and downs in the budget," explained Fire Chief Walsh. "Fire appar-atus goes up an average of 8% a year ... I think the public looks at us as being prudent ...  We've got this account to help plan in purchasing, just like in a home, so we don't have big spikes." 
"We're looking at replacing the 1973 step van with something we'd use more," he said.  "We're looking at a quint.  That would give us three engines in town."   According to Wikipedia, a quint, or quintuple combination pumper, is a fire service apparatus that serves the dual purpose of an engine and a ladder truck.  Quint refers to the five functions it provides:  pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device, and ground ladders.
"We're at 35 calls above where we were last year at this time," continued Chief Walsh.  "Double-up calls are get-ting common.  That happens as cities grow ... We're looking at a multiple response vehicle so it's not sitting around.  It would go out first on all fire calls.  There have been lots of technology advan-ces in the last five years.  Equipment is a lot safer for firefighters today ...
"Waconia, Chaska, and Chanhassen have ladder trucks and Excelsior has a boom ... It would take 20 minutes on aver-age for them to get here.  We're hoping we can start researching ... They're rang-ing from $380,000 to $700,000 to buy, but we really don't know what that number would be."
Asked Councilmember Richard Tied-en, "Are you saying that maybe mutual aid doesn't work so well?"
Replied Chief Walsh, "We can be on the scene in an average of six minutes.  It's an extra 14-minute wait for others to get here responding from one city to another ... There is discussion out there with Carver County Fire Chiefs to send out box alarms to page simultaneously.  You would still have roughly the same amount of response time."
Asked Councilmember Kim Roden, "Is there anything on your five-year plan that you'd exchange, since you say the quint is so valuable?"
Replied Chief Walsh, "I'd say no."
Stated Councilmember Tieden, "All I've heard for many years is that mutual aid works very, very well."
Said Councilmember Jim Paulsen, "Mutual aid has failed us in Deer Run."
Said Chief Walsh, "The system didn't fail.  It was the impact of the storm," re-ferring to a previous season.
Firefighter Gary Sohns said that big-ger cities have even more than one ladder truck as well as multiple stations, and Car-ver County isn't quite there yet.
Councilmember Paulsen said, "I'm not sure the truck focus is really where the war is going to be won or lost.  When St. Peter was hit with a tornado, they could light up immediately ... They used ladder trucks ... One thing we know from disas-ters is that we have to take care of our-selves.  I think we should look at the multiple risks the city has."

Click here to continue the Cash War.