Waite Park Considers Hiring Fulltime Safety Inspectors To Boost Community Fire Safety

WAITE PARK (WJON News) -- Some big changes to help improve community safety and engagement could be coming to the Waite Park Fire Department soon. Fire Chief Shawn Downs shared additional details with the city council at a special session on Monday night about his plan to add five full-time Life Safety Inspectors.

The new hires would handle calls and safety inspections from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the volunteer firefighters would take care of calls during the evenings and weekends.

Downs says the goal is to move from a response-only fire department to response and prevention:

"It's an effort to modernize, professionalize, and bring the fire service in Waite Park to the world-class level that everything else is here- the entertainment, the shopping, the dining, the police department- all top tier, and we just want to raise that level of fire protection through community engagement and community risk reduction."

Downs outlined the implementation costs and rollout plan at the meeting. The changes would not cost taxpayers anything. It would be funded largely through rental property inspection fees and by being able to discontinue the fire coverage agreement with the St. Cloud Fire Department once fully implemented.

The apartment unit rental inspection fee would be charged to the property owner at a cost of $100 per unit. Six apartment complexes in Waite Park account for 24% of Waite Park's calls, so Downs says conducting annual inspections could head off a lot of calls ahead of time:

"That person in that rental now knows that, hey, at least on an annual basis someone beyond the property owner or the maintenance team, etc., is coming in, someone that is trained in this, someone that this is their career, and their whole existence, to ensure that my living conditions are as absolutely best as they can be."

Downs says the overall goal is to reduce risk to the community and decrease daytime response times.

Downs has already helped to build up the volunteer staff from 14 members to 22 since he started as Waite Park's first full-time fire chief on July 1st.  If the council decides to move forward with the plan, changes could start as early as next year.