LINO LAKES, Minn. – (Jan. 15, 2016) – Two years after making their intentions clear, Lino Lakes is now two weeks away from leaving the Centennial Fire District. With the completion of a new fire station in the city late last year the Lino Lakes fire division is now fully operational and will soon end its joint powers agreement with Circle Pines and Centerville with whom they have partnered for the last 30 years. “From Dec. 28 through Jan. 29 we will be responding jointly…on Jan. 30 they will move their equipment” said Lino Lakes Public Safety Director John Swenson.
Even though the departments will soon become separate entities they will still work together. Director Swenson has had discussions with Chief Lundstrom from Centennial about a mutual aid agreement and knows that when it comes to saving lives the departments will put aside any lingering animosity from the split. “Where the rubber meets the road public safety professionals do their job and that’s exactly what is taking place” said Swenson.
At the end of the month Lino Lakes will take possession of the existing fire station on Lake Drive and together with their new station at the intersection of Birch and Centerville Roads they will offer a two station response for the city.
In addition to having paid on call firefighters assigned to each station 24 police department staff are now cross trained as fire responders. “Because of our use of cross trained staff our response times will be reduced…from that perspective that is a huge positive for our community” said Swenson.
With police officers responding to fire scenes all squad cars in the Lino fleet have been retrofitted to make space for additional equipment such as firefighter turnout gear and extra fire suppression equipment.
The cost of the new fire station in Lino Lakes was a source of debate during the recent city council election which saw two of three incumbents ousted. Original estimates called for a simple bare bones station at a cost of less than $2 million. The final cost of the new station is just over $3.9 million.
Much of the additional cost is due to the training elements that are an integral part of the building. “We incorporated 11 of the 12 requirements for relicensing in the state of Minnesota as a firefighter.” Swenson continued, “this is a top flight facility that will enable us to continue to move forward and train our folks in a top flight way.”
The last two years have been filled with bumps in the road including a citizen petition, a lawsuit and election challenges but now the new fire division in Lino Lakes is up and running and Director Swenson is ready to deliver quality service to the residents. “We are very proud of this station, it is going to serve this community for decades to come. It will give us a great opportunity to provide excellent service.”
