Columbus Council Chews On High Fire Department Expenses In ‘23 Budget | News

The Columbus City Council discussed replacing its fire station’s original roof and furnace because they both reached their shelf lives after the building was built in 1998. The city has allocated funds annually for these projects over the past few years, but precise cost estimates ar

Wages may increase, truck costs are more than expected

The Columbus City Council began budget discussions on Wednesday, Aug. 31, but no preliminary levy or total budget numbers were included. Instead the discussions were centered around increasing on-call firefighter wages, funding a new fire engine and considering costs for repairs to the Columbus firehouse.

Since the Forest Lake and Columbus fire departments function under a joint entity, Fire Chief Alan Newman spoke at the council meeting to advocate for wage increases and explained the need for the new fire engine.

He explained that, pre-pandemic, the fire department would receive more than 40 applications each hiring season. Since then, the department has received less than 20 per hiring season consecutively for the past few years.

“If there were some things that could change, what could make a benefit? And I think payroll is one of those things,” Newman said.

He suggested the council increase the wage of on-call firefighters by $4 per hour for the 2023 budget and plan to increase it another subsequent $4 in the two years following.

With the $4 per hour increase included in next year’s fire department budget, the city would see a 7.62% increase, rising to $814,158 from $752,120. Without the $4 per hour wage increase added to the budget, the city would see a 3.16% increase for the fire department’s budget. Currently, on-call firefighters make around $16 an hour, which is above the state average of $12 per hour. Newman’s goal is to increase wages to around $31 per hour over the next few years in order to retain current employees and recruit new workers. According to Newman, transitioning Forest Lake and Columbus to this model would move the operating budget from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

The alternative to increasing hourly wage to on-call firefighters would be to open a handful of full-time positions on top of the on-call model, which Lino Lakes and Stillwater have done.

“I know I’m asking for a lot when I’m telling you we’re already probably in the top five, and I’m asking to be much more ahead of everybody else. But I think that when you look at the alternative, it’s kind of a no-brainer,” Newman said.

Newman estimates that to reach $31 per hour over the next three years it would cost the cities a total of $133,125; Columbus would pay $26,798 of that.

“You’re buying into this model because you see big picture and you see vision down the road and you want to get there or you just think about the budget today,” City Administrator Elizabeth Mursko summed up.

Newman touched on the replacement of a fire truck, which was discussed at the Forest Lake City Council budget meeting a week prior, since prices for equipment have gone up significantly.

“Typically, we’d see a 3% increase in a fire truck from one year to the next. Engine 1 is [up] 13.17% in one year. It’s nuts,” Newman said.

The replacement of the fire engine would cost $863,747 for the upcoming year, which was previously around $750,000 last year. He explained that the cities are behind schedule to replace this engine, since it is already a year older than its 15-year expiration. If the new truck was purchased this year, it wouldn’t arrive for around two years due to supply chain issues, making the current truck three years older than expiration.

“Engine one is our first-out engine and is the one that takes the most beating. ... That’s the one that currently we’re having engine issues with, which at this point I’m hopefully thinking that it’s not going to need a new engine which is good because … that’s $35,000,” Newman said.

The Columbus-located Forest Lake fire department station is now 25 years old and experiencing some roof and furnace difficulties that the city is obliged to repair.

“The firefighters are now in the fire hall, and the water is pouring in the fire hall because the roof was leaking,” Mursko said, which she explained was shown by a video sent to her from one of the firefighters.

The flat roof on top of the station is the original roof from 1998, and is reaching its expiration date. Similarly, the furnace of the building is the original one from 25 years ago, too. The furnace has needed several repairs, but the concern is that replacement parts may become unavailable soon due to the equipment’s antiquity.

“Well, when the water is rushing in, we have no choice but to fix the roof, right? If the furnace goes off, we have no choice,” Mayor Jesse Preiner said.

A few years ago the council started allocating $10,000 a year to facilitate potential structural projects on the fire department building. The fund is estimated at $100,000. At the time of the meeting, Mursko didn’t gather actual cost estimates for replacing the roof. However, she estimates a roof replacement may cost around $60,000 and the furnace replacement could empty the remainder of the saved funds allotted to repair the fire house.

“The roof and the furnace is going to wipe out the whole fund and then some,” Mursko said.

For the next budget meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 13, Mursko will gather more definitive estimates for what a new roof will cost.

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