Fire Chiet Joe Wallin

Our Speaker for October 20th was Joe Wallin, the fire chief for the city of Minnetonka. Joe is familiar to many of us because he served in the South Lake area in many capacities prior to becoming chief in the city of Minnetonka. He is very proud of the fire class rating earned by Minnetonka from ISO (Insurance Services Office). The rating is based on training, equipment, and all of the other facets of managing a fire program in a city, and he announced that Minnetonka has rating of 3, which is tied for the best in the state. Minneapolis, Rochester, Duluth and St Paul are the only cities with as good a rating as this. There is a very good chance that Minnetonka will be upgraded to a Fire Class 2, which would make them the first in Minnesota to get that rating. He discussed briefly the issues that he and other small town chiefs are facing. The costs of equipment have increased far faster than the departments' ability to raise revenues, so many cities are doing without much-needed new equipment. The area chiefs get together frequently to discuss and formulate plans for emergency situations. Current concern is the flu epidemic expected in the area; the illnesses increase the number of calls while the departments have trouble maintaining full staffing because of the illness. Another major issue is the shifting demographics in the area. A higher percentage of elderly reduces the number of volunteers available while the area faces an increase in health-related emergency calls. Fire volunteers are required to have more training now, also, so costs per call increase. The all-volunteer departments may be a thing of the past and the future may see regional service centers instead of city-oriented stations. (Story by Tad Shaw)