Boyceville fire district board pleased with Grantsburg station

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  —  By all accounts, the Boyceville Community Fire District board and Boyceville firefighters who travelled to Granstburg December 30 to see the new fire station were pleased with what they saw.

“It’s a nice building that seemed to be laid out well,” said Gilbert Krueger, chair of the fire board and representative for the Village of Boyceville, at the fire board’s January 13 meeting.

After seeing the Granstburg station with its hose drying tower, Krueger said he thought it would be worthwhile for Boyceville “to put a higher priority” on including a tower in Boyceville’s plans for a few fire station.

“It’s close to a need, if you ask me,” he said.

Brian Marlette, Boyceville fire chief, said he liked the Granstburg fire station’s meeting room, especially because each outlet along the wall has wireless Internet access along with the power source.

In the case of a natural disaster when all other utilities have been knocked out, the Granstburg meeting room can become a place for law enforcement, emergency medical services and firefighters to set up a command station, Marlette said.

“That would be a good place to work in a disaster,” he said.

“I was impressed with it,” said Mike Blechinger, representative for the Town of Tiffany.

The Granstburg fire station is somewhat larger than the station that is being planned for Boyceville, and Blechinger said he thought it seemed like “a lot of building” for the money.

Ned Hahn, representative for the Town of Hay River, said he thought the Granstburg station “falls in the happy medium. It’s not extravagant, and it’s not too plain Jane.”

Rich Monn, representative for the Town of Stanton and chair of the five-year planning committee, said that while the Granstburg station was bigger than what Boyceville would need, he advocates building a station that is a bit larger than needed so the fire department does not outgrow the space right away.

The Five-Year Capital Improvement and Planning Committee of the Boyceville Community Fire District will meet at 7 p.m. January 27 to discuss plans for a new fire station.

Other business

In other business, the Boyceville fire district board learned that the fire department had gone out on 53 runs in 2015, compared to 89 runs for 2014.

Marlette also reported that so far this year, by January 13, the Boyceville fire department had gone out on five runs.

Krueger said it was interesting to note that the fire department had gone out on ten percent of the number of runs from last year in the first 13 days of the new year.

At the rate of five runs every 13 days, the Boyceville fire department would end up going on 140 runs this year.

The Boyceville Community Fire District meets next on February 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boyceville Village Hall.

Ambulance district

Matt Feeney, director of the Boyceville ambulance service, reported at the Boyceville Community Ambulance District meeting, which followed directly after the fire district meeting, that the ambulance service had a shortfall of $2,973.57 as of December 31.

The $30 overdraft fee assessed by the bank was credited again to the ambulance service because someone at the bank did not understand at first that the ambulance district has a $30,000 line of credit, Feeney said.

The $2,973 overdraft was substantially less than in years past, Feeney said, although he did not elaborate on the amount of overdrafts in previous years.

As soon the townships in the ambulance district begin paying their assessments for 2016, the short-term credit will be paid back immediately, he said.

So far in January, the ambulance district account has had a $7,500 deposit from collections made by LifeQuest Services, Feeney said.

LifeQuest is a nationwide ambulance billing and collection service used by the Boyceville ambulance service.

Boyceville ambulance went out on 243 runs in 2015; 182 runs were with patients and the rest of the runs were for standby-status, such as the Red Cedar Raceway, Feeney said.

The Red Cedar Raceway has already contacted the ambulance service about stand-by for this year, and Feeney said the Boyceville EMTs are in favor of the idea.

So far this year, the Boyceville ambulance service has gone out on seven runs, he noted.

The Boyceville Community Ambulance District meets next on February 10 immediately following the fire district meeting.