The City of Clearwater will be giving its fire department the ability to recoup some of its costs for service.
Last week, members of the city council agreed to adopt an ordinance to establish charges for emergency response services.
In June, the council discussed the proposed ordinance and agreed the concept was acceptable as long as residents of the city and townships weren’t charged for regular calls.
Last Monday, Clearwater Fire Chief Ryan Pridgeon told the council citizens wouldn’t be charged.
“If someone is a taxpayer I’m opposed to sending them a bill for a fire or a medical call we respond to,” he said. “They’re already paying taxes -already covering that cost. We took out language where anyone in the city or township would be paying for a medical or fire call.”
Pridgeon said the ordinance was developed by the City of Albertville after a tanker rolled over near that city five years ago.
“About half the departments in the county responded as mutual aid,” he said. “Albertville was able to get all that money back, but none of the mutual aid departments were able to get any money back from the wear and tear on the trucks, the time that people were there and any equipment that might have been damaged.”
He said after that, the Albertville fire chief started working on a way to get compensation for mutual aid services. They came up with a draft ordinance.
“In order to do it, every city and township in Wright County has to adopt an ordinance,” he said. “The Wright County Chiefs Association voted on it last quarter.”
Pridgeon said the goal isn’t to bring in revenue from taxpayers.
“It’s to get mutual aid for the department so if we damage equipment or we’re there for 24 hours or longer, we’re able to compensate the department and recoup some of those costs,” he said. “It would be strictly for vehicles passing through on I-94, Hwy. 24 or Co. Rd. 75, or potentially something like a truck rollover or haz-mat (hazardous materials) spill at the Travel Plaza. We tried to be all-encompassing for every situation in Wright County.”
Pridgeon said the department has submitted invoices for incidents like major accidents before, but without a lot of success.
“Occasionally, on a major accident we might send off a letter to an insurance company and get $50 or $100 back, but we really had no fee schedule or no ordinance,” he said. “We had no real authority to do that.”
He said the fees were based on what the DNR charges and approved by the county fire chiefs.
Fees included in the ordinance would be $275 per hour for an engine or ladder/aerial truck with up to four personnel; $200 for a water tender; $185 for heavy rescue/rescue/ambulance; $85 for command vehicle/utility truck/grass truck and $50 for ATV with water tank.
Pridgeon said he would work with Administrator Kevin Kress on any incident that requires a fee.
“I would account for each member of the department, trucks, hours on the scene and any equipment damaged and submit to Kevin, then submit a letter to the insurance company or trucking company,” he said.
The actual vote on the ordinance will take place after final review by the city attorney.
