Pine City Council renews contracted fire aid agreement with Rush City, discusses opening dialogues

The Pine City Council unanimously voted to renew a contracted fire aid agreement with Rush City for 2026 at Wednesday's meeting.

City administrator Marcy Peterson said Rush City remains interested in returning to a mutual aid agreement rather than continuing with contracted aid in the future.

According to the agreement, no charges will be levied by Rush City for assistance to the Pine City Fire Department, unless the aid continued for more than eight hours or for an event that qualified for FEMA disaster assistance.

Charges will be levied by Pine City for assistance to the Rush City department, based on an established fee schedule.

Council member Dave Hill said he'd like to see Pine City and Rush City open up a dialogue about fire protection services.

"I think talking is probably good, and I thought maybe they were going to do that, but they didn't," Hill said. "So I guess we can extend an olive branch and say, yeah, we'll come and talk about it. I wouldn't be the first one to say I'm not going to promise that anything will happen."

Council member Kyle Palmer asked Hill to clarify if the discussion would take place with Rush City or Rock Creek.

In December of 2023, Rock Creek opted to contract with the Rush City Fire Department instead of renewing with Pine City.

Hill said that while Rock Creek is "in the middle" of the fire prevention conversation, Pine City's dialogue should take place with its contracted aid agency.

"I think our discussions need to be strictly with the city of Rush City, because that's what we're dealing with, is that mutual aid contract," Hill explained.

Hill expressed a willingness to discuss a territory change as part of a dialogue, but added that he did not "anticipate that mutual aid would be part of those talks."

"I'm agreeing to talk to them about our relationships between the two towns," Hill explained, later adding: "We're not closing the door on anything, and we're not offering anything."

Council member Gina Pettie said that a decision regarding mutual aid would be in the Pine City Council's hands.

"At this time, any decision regarding a transition back to mutual aid will rest with the Pine City Council," Pettie said. "That's what it says, so it is up to us to reach out. That's what we need to do."

Hill said the scope of the dialogue should focus on "what our towns need to do to make things work between themselves."

Council member Dan Swanson proposed meeting with the city's firefighters first if the council is entertaining any making kind of change.

"I do think that's an excellent idea," Peterson said. "Take it back to them, and ask their opinions and thoughts on this before any kind of meeting would take place."

Council member Kyle Palmer said he'd like to set "a clear expectation" for the goals of a dialogue with Rush City.

"I don't want to give the people the expectation that, by us talking about it, it's going to go either way," Palmer said. "And it could also send a wrong message to the individuals that are involved, who might have to perform those duties too. I don't want to just talk for the sake of talking, if we're not going to actually accomplish anything and waste everybody's time, and send the wrong message that while we're going to entertain a conversation, but we're not going to actually do anything about it, because we're tired of getting backlash from the public."

Palmer also said he believes the dialogue needs to be with Rock Creek.

"I think we kind of all know what Rush City wants, and I think if we have a conversation, it's going to result in the same thing they have in this memo," Palmer said. "I think we need to find out information from the party that went that direction, and I would like to have open communication with them. If Rush City wants to be part of that, I'm all for it."

Mayor Kent Bombard said he'd like to see a meeting work toward repairing relations and improve working together with Rock Creek and Pine City.

"It doesn't matter, period, end of story, if someone's house is on fire, no one has to be concerned if a fire department is going to show up, or what fire department is going to show up, or where they're going to come from, or is there a squabble between this fire department and that fire department," Bombard said. "Because none of that should matter at the end of the day. What should matter at the end of the day is that there's water being sprayed on a fire."

As part of the motion, the council will meet with the city's firefighters prior to potentially reaching out to other agencies.