Colfax fire department receives $40,000 Otto Bremer Foundation grant

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  The Colfax Community Fire Department has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation for purchasing turnout gear and an airbag rescue system.

Don Logslett, fire chief, reported on the grant at the Colfax fire board’s May 26 meeting.

Logslett said that he and Becky Kiesow, former fire district clerk, had written the grant application last fall.

The fire department received the money this spring.

“We wrote it for $60,000 and got $40,000,” Logslett said.

The money is being used to buy new turnout gear for approximately 16 Colfax firefighters who were still using the old gear, he said.

Part of the money also was used to purchase an airbag system for rescuing people in car accidents, farming accidents or any accident where someone is pinned, Logslett said.

In fact, the airbags and controls had been ordered the day of the fire board meeting, he said.

The airbags are quicker, faster, and safer than the “jaws” extrication equipment, Logslett said.

The fire department had also planned to use some of the money for purchasing pagers and radios, but Dunn County is now focusing its efforts on getting a program up and running called “I Am Responding,” Logslett said.

The “I Am Responding” system works with smartphones.

Once the system is up and running, a big screen will be set up in the fire station that will show which firefighters are on their way to the fire station or to the scene of the fire. The phone application will also give directions to firefighters on their way to the fire, Logslett explained.

In time, the pager systems will be obsolete. The cost of the “I Am Responding” application is assessed on a per call basis. For a small department like Colfax, the cost of the system will be the equivalent of perhaps one pager, he said.

Logslett said the Colfax fire department plans to keep the pagers for a year until the “bugs” are worked out of the I Am Responding system.

Once Dunn County has the system working, when Dunn County pages out firefighters, the firefighters will receive the page on their smartphones, Logslett explained.

Financial report

The Colfax fire board also reviewed and approved the financial report for 2015.

According to the report, the fire department had actual revenue of $116,055 for 2015, which compared to a budgeted amount of $112,700.

The fire department had operating expenses for 2015 of $104,019, compared to a budgeted amount of $112,700.

The fire department’s checking account had a balance of $18,612.14 at the end of December.

The vehicle replacement account contained $145,082.28 at the end of 2015.

The Money Market business account had $42,312.29 at the end of the year.

Insurance

The Colfax Community Fire District Board approved renewing the insurance policy with the Local Government Property Insurance Fund in the amount of $1,269 with a $500 deductible to cover the fire station and its contents, listed as $881,376 on the policy, excluding firefighting equipment.

Other options would have been a $1,000 deductible with a premium of $1,199; a $2,500 deductible with a premium of $1,075; a $5,000 deductible with a premium of $890.

Several fire board members said they thought that even though the $1,296 premium was several hundred dollars more than last year, it was still a reasonable premium to pay for insuring nearly $900,000 worth of building and contents.

After some discussion, the fire board directed Jessica Checkalski, secretary-treasurer, to obtain insurance quotes from other companies for the fall meeting so the premiums could be compared. Logslett noted that all of the fire trucks and other equipment owned by the fire department are on a different policy.

Tanker

In other business, the Colfax Community Fire District Board learned that the used International tanker truck purchased by the fire district last year, which used the tank from the old tanker truck, cost $73,600 all together.

The fire board had approved spending up to $75,000.

The Colfax Firefighters Association spent $11,000 of their own money on emergency lights for the tanker truck.

Logslett reported that the old tanker truck had been sold at Spencer Sales for $5,220.

The fire department kept the tanker from the old truck and had it refurbished and mounted on the International truck.