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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — OCTOBER 13, 2025 2 Chief Boehlke said it is important to understand this is a business. They must operate like other businesses. That means continuing to evolve with the times. He stated in 2002 the LJFD responded to 535 calls annually. This year they are expecting it to be 5,225 fire, EMS and rescue calls. The calls are increasing about 8-10% every year. That increase in service calls is similar to what other agencies are seeing. Average response time to emergency calls is 4 minutes and 54 seconds. After achieving 24/7 staffing in 2012 it allowed them to close Station 1 on New Brighton Road, which was not geographically in a good area for responding to calls. In 2024 they hired six full time captains after receiving a Safer Grant. That paid for those positions for the first three years. Those captains are crucial members needed to provide daily supervision and leadership. Chief Boehlke said The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) uses a staffing standard of four firefighters on an engine. We are trying to attain a staffing level where we can have three firefighters on an engine. A lot of the tasks that the firefighters do tend to be very labor intensive. They are moving equipment and patients. The ideal staffing at Station 120 which is the Hudson Road Station has a full-time captain on duty, along with two part-time firefighters. The current headquarters, on Lexington and County Road I, is Station 130. The ideal staffing there is three part-time firefighters. Station 140 is on Victoria and County Road E. The ideal staffing is a captain and two firefighters on duty. We would like to see nine firefighters on duty 24/7. Chief Boehlke provided some handouts to Council. He said over the last year they have only achieved full staffing of three firefighters, at Station 120 and 140, 80% of the time. That means 20% of the time there are only two firefighters at those stations. When staffing levels are low, Station 130 is forced to be browned out. A brown out means there are no firefighters on duty. Station 130 is browned out for 14% of the shifts. That creates a longer and slower response time because the trucks have to come further. This affects coverage and response for all three cities. They cover a large area. Total coverage area is 31 square miles, with a combined population of 42,000 residents. Currently there are 82 personnel. Four are full-time chiefs, six are captains and there are 72 part-time firefighters. All of the firefighters have other jobs and may work for neighboring departments. Some of them are on career departments. There are accountants, nurses and a full gamut of careers. The part-time firefighters are a great asset. They have work and families and are only able to work when the other aspects of their lives allow it. We can't force them to work overtime or additional shifts. A big piece of the strategic plan is that LJFD needs to transition to hiring additional full-time staff. There are large voids in the schedule. Assistant Fire Chief John Rausch outlined the information in the handouts. It shows that 1.22% of the time we had four personnel. The goal is to have three personnel on each truck at each of the stations for a total of nine. That goal is only met 26.64% of the time. He said 52.05% of the time, there is an opening in the schedules available for part-time positions. Councilmember Monson asked for clarification that two personnel shifts are considered "staffed." Assistant Chief Rausch said they consider that staffed. There are times when Station 130 would remain in service, meaning there is a crew of two responding from that station. Other times we have to close that station in lieu of running two personnel at each of the three stations. Depending on the capabilities and training level they have to spread the personnel out. The goal is to have the schedule filled. When they can't, they will shuffle personnel around to have Station 130 filled.