Shared services study explores options for Pine City fire service area

A shared services study is underway to explore future options for the Pine City fire service area.

The participating municipalities are Pine City, Rock Creek, Pokegama Township, Chengwatana Township, Royalton Township, and Pine City Township.

On Monday, Charlie Smith — CEO of consulting firm Triad Paradigm — discussed the scope, process, and timeline of the study.

Background

Smith is no stranger to the ins and outs of fire protection: After starting out as a junior firefighter at 17 years old with a small township outside of Duluth, he has over 33 years in fire service.

At 20, Smith became a full-time career firefighter.

"I've served in pretty much all of the positions that you can serve in the fire service," Smith said. "So firefighter, driver/operator, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief or deputy chief, and fire chief."

Smith had a six-year stint as fire chief at the Spring Lake Park-Blaine-Mounds View fire department, which he said gave him the largest reference and background about how fire districts and joint powers agreements operate. (More on that later.)

In addition to his fire department credentials, Smith graduated with his MBA a few years ago and is a veteran who's served over 23 years in the Minnesota Air National Guard.

The scope of the study

The scope of the study includes a review of current fire and EMS operations, including staffing, training, equipment, and response times.

The study will also consider whether additional fire stations are needed, and, if they are, where they'd be best located.

Smith explained that exploring district options "is studying whether forming a joint fire district or expanding the current sharing agreements would improve service."

The study also includes financial planning, volunteer recruitment and employment, ISO ratings, and community impact.

"All of us are stakeholders in the fire department's operations," Smith said. "Especially the community members."

Smith explained that the process of the study includes gathering data, interviewing stakeholders, reviewing call history, and comparing best practices and national standards.

Ultimately, the decision-making will come down to locally-elected officials, but Smith said Triad Paradigm's role is to help those entities make an informed decision.

"In the end, we'll deliver a final report with recommendations and an implementation road map to assist the communities in the direction they want to go," Smith said.

Exploring options

Forming a fire district under a joint powers agreement is one of the options being explored as part of the study, but it's not the only one.

A fire district is when multiple cities and townships join together to provide fire and emergency services as one organization.

"When we say fire district, that's a loose term that describes the service area that a fire department is providing service for," Smith said. "But the true teeth of it lies within the joint powers agreement."

Smith explained that funding under a joint powers agreement flows from taxpayers through community budgets to the fire department.

"There's a lot of pass-through that occurs as far as funding goes, and even decision-making," he said.

Smith also outlined fire taxing districts, which operate similarly to school districts. Under that structure, the fire department would become a separate entity.

"They would levy for their own funds, they would bond for capital equipment, and take care of all of the administrative processes, hiring and firing, every single thing," Smith said.

Smith added that the Cloquet Area Fire District is currently the only formal fire taxing district in the state.

"We will explore what it looks like to stay in the current relationship, what it would be under a joint powers agreement, to have all of the entities in a joint powers agreement or a taxing district, or even other options," Smith said.

Study timeline

Triad Paradigm has met with community stakeholders in July and August, and expects to wrap up stakeholder meetings sometime in September.

"That's what we started out our process with, meetings with the major stakeholders, which are the townships and cities, and those groups of elected officials," Smith said.

Multiple meetings are planned with Pine City fire chief Tom Miller, to help put the last 15 to 20 years of fire protection services in context.

Smith said the interview process is a core component of the study.

"We can crunch data and numbers, which we will, but the human component and the relationships within this fire service area are the most important parts, of not only preparing an accurate study with accurate results, but also to put it within context of how it could operate in the future," he said.

The final recommendation and implementation road map are expected before the end of February of 2026.

"In our opinion, it is a very tight timeline, absolutely doable, but there's a lot of information that's going to come out and need to be processed," Smith said.

Fire service 'really starting to change'

Smith explained that fire protection services have faced challenges statewide — especially when it comes to staffing shortages since around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"From a fire service perspective, it has now changed where we've really had to retool our systems to go out and recruit people to the fire service, which we have not had to," he said.

The cost of fire protection and EMS services have also continued to rise, and Smith said fire departments have to be both effective and efficient.

"We're trying to find that balance, within not only the Pine City fire service area, but around the state," Smith said.

Smith gave credit to local officials for looking ahead to the future through the study process, and community members for their passion about area fire protection.

"One of the reasons why we're here looking at the Pine City fire service area is that fire service in Minnesota is really starting to change," Smith said.