GF Council strikes fire protection agreement over UAS park

March 08--A new agreement approved Monday by the Grand Forks City Council aims to provide city fire protection services to one of Grand Forks County's growing business developments.

The council voted 6-1 to approve an agreement between the city and county to provide fire protection for the Grand Sky unmanned aircraft business park, where developers are already finishing up plans to move tenants in later this year.

Thomas Swoyer, president of Grand Sky Development Co., called the deal "exactly the right solution."

"Any development, any house, any business, without fire protection, I don't know if it can really be insured," Swoyer said. "We have to have some fire protection capability for (Grand Sky) to be viable from an insurance perspective."

There's more to the deal than sending firefighters 18 miles down the road in the case of an emergency. Under the new contract, Grand Forks County--which rents the the land the business park is being built upon from Grand Forks Air Force Base--will reimburse the city in the case that fire services are used.

Those prices can vary. The rate for response is $50 per hour per firefighter and $100 per "responding unit," according to the contract, and the agreement on file with the city states that if firefighters respond, but don't make it past the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and County Road 5, the county is automatically charged for one hour of service. If they make it past that point, the county is on the hook for a minimum two-hour charge.

That's a bitter pill for council member Terry Bjerke, who voted against the measure. He argued that a resident could live for 50 years in Grand Forks and never need firefighters to respond to where they live but still fund the service with their taxes each year. Why, he wondered, does Grand Sky only have to pay when it needs it?

"I'm concerned that this is going to be a long-term handout to Grand Sky," he said.

City Attorney Howard Swanson acknowledged at the meeting that the agreement departs from city code-recommended charges for fire protection. He said, though, that the rates were fairer to the development in the case of an emergency, he said. Grand Forks crews are at least 20 minutes away, which means they would have a significant delay in service compared to the average Grand Forks resident or business.

Grand Forks Fire Chief Peter O'Neill added that he favors the agreement as well, pointing out the expensive technology that a fire would put at risk.

"It's a multi-million dollar operation with millions of dollars in equipment inside these buildings," he said. "This isn't a strip mall, this isn't a restaurant, this is a very large facility."

Grand Forks County Commissioner David Engen took a similar tack.

"As Grand Sky grows, there will be more and more buildings out there," he said. "If it develops as anticipated, it will have a number of different buildings, and of course you've got high-value tech stuff out there."

City leaders requested that the agreement be reviewed annually, and most officials close to the project don't expect it to last much longer than several years. Fire protection at the facility is likely to grow, they said, and Grand Sky should likely have its own fire station within several years--be it a city facility or an on-site volunteer arrangement.

"Right now, this is the best fire protection that can be offered to them in order to get them off the ground and running," O'Neill said.

Other business

--Council members also voted 6-1 with Bjerke dissenting to give approval to an extension of its Renaissance Zone plan, which offers tax breaks to developments in the downtown area.

The new changes to the plan tweak how tax breaks are applied within the zone's borders. No longer will the city give tax breaks for just purchasing a property--that's already incentivized by the market, city staffers have said--and the incentives for new construction have been increased, with property tax exemptions boosted to 100 percent for five years instead of a lower, declining rate. In addition, seven new city blocks are added.

--The council also voted unanimously on its consent agenda to approve a spending plan for a $15 million line of credit from the Bank of North Dakota that helps fund development at the future water treatment plant and spurs infrastructure expansion around the city.

--Finally, the council voted 6-1 with Bjerke dissenting on how to spend a $2 million surplus from the 2014 fiscal year, funding renovations of local police locker rooms and fire stations, creating a new emergency exit within City Hall and funding technology upgrades with 911 service providers. Bjerke noted his support for many of the projects funded, but voiced his disappointment that the surplus money didn't help more infrastructure projects.

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