St. Paul mayor approves moving fire engine from Dayton’s Bluff, adds 2 ambulances to fire stations

Jan. 23--Hours after two St. Paul City Council members said they opposed moving a fire engine from the Dayton's Bluff area to another part of the city, St. Paul's new mayor announced the relocation will happen. But he stressed that new emergency medical resources will be added.

Last year, to avoid cutting a rescue squad, a fire department labor-management committee recommended moving Engine 7 from the station on Ross Street, off East Seventh Street, to Station 20, which is on University Avenue near Vandalia Street.

Station 7 will not close -- it's also home to a ladder truck, but there is not room for a fire engine when an ambulance is added.

Stations 7 and 20 are the only two of St. Paul's 15 fire stations that do not have ambulances, and the plan approved by Mayor Melvin Carter will also add an ambulance to both stations.

"I'm confident that this plan will help meet our residents' needs, both on the East Side and throughout all of St. Paul," Carter said in a statement Monday that stated the "redeployment plan will allow St. Paul fire and medic companies to better respond to their immediate service areas and reduce response times."

COUNCIL MEMBERS IN AREA OPPOSED MOVE

Earlier on Monday, council member Jane Prince gathered elected officials and more than 20 community members at Station 7 to implore city leaders to not relocate Engine 7, which she has described as "the busiest fire-suppression resource in St. Paul."

She and council member Dan Bostrom, who also represents the area, said a new Station 7 needs to be built to accommodate a ladder truck, engine and ambulance.

Prince said the prospect of moving a fire engine is a matter of equity.

"Frankly, we East Siders are sick and tired of the city raiding the East Side to make up for budget shortfalls and equipment shortages elsewhere," Prince said. "As home to some of the city's oldest woodframe housing stock, its highest percentage of vacant housing and among its largest concentrations of poverty, fire risk is demonstrably higher in our neighborhood. Let there be no mistake -- this is an equity issue."

Prince said she wanted to make clear her remarks were referring to the previous administration. Chris Coleman served as mayor for 12 years and is now running for governor.

Ben Petok, former spokesman for the Coleman administration, said Monday that Prince's "contention is directly contradicted" by an outside study of the fire department released in July that found St. Paul's fire and EMS services were "equitably delivered" among neighborhoods.

"She should work with her council colleagues who widely supported the ... proposal (to relocate Engine 7) instead of taking cheap shots at the former mayor," Petok said.

Prince said Monday that she has great confidence in Carter's vision for "building a St. Paul that works for all" and looks forward to working with him, but she was "disappointed that the mayor decided to implement" the plan that came about during the Coleman administration

"When you're looking at these issues through the lens of equity, the fact is there's been $3.5 million in fire losses on the East Side (in one year), which is by orders of magnitude more than any other part of the city," Prince said after Carter's announcement. "There's no question we need those two new medic rigs in the system, but not at the expense of a vital fire resource on the East Side."

AVOIDING CUTTING A RESCUE SQUAD

The issue with Engine 7 came up after Coleman initially called for eliminating one of the fire department's three rescue squads and beefing up the emergency medical side of the department in the city budget he proposed in August.

The proposal was in line with a recommendation from the outside study, which said that fires account for less than 5 percent of emergency calls in St. Paul and that the department needed "a paradigm shift" to best handle the workload for medical emergencies.

After firefighters expressed concerns, a fire department labor-management committee proposed alternatives. The committee was not permitted to stray from the fire department's 2018 budget -- it's about $62 million, which is a 2.9 percent increase over last year.

The committee recommended maintaining all three rescue squads by moving equipment around, including shifting Engine 7 to Station 20.

In December, the city council put a decision on hold about whether to cut a rescue squad or move Engine 7, saying the new mayor and new fire chief should weigh in.

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