At the June 23 meeting of the Rushford City Council, the council quickly dealt with the regular business of the city including approval of verified claims/fund summary for the period ending June 6 and the renewal of a cooperative agreement with the state DNR for a bike trail segment. The council then moved on to the main business of the night, a work session.
The first item on the agenda was the ambulance facility needs and staffing sustainability. Ambulance Director Joey Busse attended to address the council. With several experienced EMTs reaching retirement, Busse has looked to position the ambulance to be able to attract new staff. He mentioned that several towns in the area have had to join forces to provide ambulance service or hire other ambulance services at a higher cost.
Busse has recruited two EMT-certified WSU students to join the crew. Since EMS protocols require them to stay in Rushford while on call, Busse was asking permission to create adequate overnight accommodation at the ambulance station. He proposed the addition of two separate sleeping areas as well as a kitchenette to provide suitable housing for the EMTs.
In addition, Busse said more room and storage area was needed for the training at the station. Busse plans to run classes for EMTs and hopes to train all the EMRs and drivers as EMTs. The classes would be hybrid with in-person classes two nights a week and possibly Saturdays.
Another improvement to consider would be the addition of a decontamination area for the crew to use in case of a contamination situation while on a call.
Busse suggested the possibility of pulling the back wall of the ambulance garage back as far as the fire station back wall and extending the roofline of the fire station over the ambulance garage. This would provide space for training, sleeping areas and above storage space.
In closing, Busse reminded the council that in a few years the second ambulance would be due for replacement. He pointed out that it was hard to get the old ambulance repaired and parts are not available in some cases. Busse felt the ambulance was “sitting pretty with money in the bank” and was confident he’d be able to continue to staff the crew in the future.
After discussion, the council decided to ask Busse to reach out to Plainview and see how it was going for them with their contracted ambulance service. The council asked for the costs of such service for comparison as well as response time. Busse was encouraged to reach out to Police Chief Adam Eide and Fire Chief Nick Smith to discuss the possibility of such an addition to their shared building. Busse will also check with Wieser to get an idea of costs involved.
Farmers Co-op Site
The second item on the work session was the Farmer’s Co-op Site. After community surveys were evaluated, three key themes were found: strong support for green or open space, farmers’ markets and events and housing or traditional retail. The information about the surveys is included in a 100-page report.
Four scenarios were created; townhome housing development, mixed use development, event/green space development or an active community green space.
The next step will be to make some minor changes to the scenarios and, after approval of the EDA, to post the four scenarios, each on a separate page with details, to the city’s webpage for community members to see and examine. Posters will be put up around town when the scenarios are available on the webpage. People without computers will be able to use computers at the library to view the scenarios and the full report.
Following that, public engagement sessions will be held for citizen input. These meetings most likely will begin in late summer.
Mayor Terri Benson commented, “The flexibility to grow in different ways is important.” Drew Lindner agreed and noted that he wanted to make sure that the property gives back to the community.
Capital Improvement Planning
Mike Bubany will be coming soon to do capital improvement planning with the council. Previous to that, Derek Olinger of Bolton and Menk will help the city prioritize upcoming projects; PWD Roger Knutson will also need to attend that meeting to give his input regarding the conditions of the city’s streets.
Council Meeting Structure
The final item addressed at the work session was council meeting structure and work session scheduling. The council felt work sessions were valuable. Ultimately, they decided to continue to hold two council meetings a month with the second meeting of the month to include a work session as needed.
The council’s consensus was that they should limit the work sessions to the discussion of two items so they could fully discuss the items rather than cut discussions short in order to deal with more items.
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