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Residents press Orono council on fire-department costs, mutual aid and transparency
Summary
Chief Van Eyel reported incident and staffing updates; several residents at public comment expressed concern about rising fire-department costs, mutual-aid response, and lack of public input on forming an independent fire department.
Chief Van Eyel presented the public safety report Aug. 26, summarizing incident data, response-time review and staffing for Orono’s fire department. He said the department had 22 paid on-call and part-time firefighters as of July 1, reported conditional offers and background checks under way for additional hires, and noted a $5,000 DNR matching grant the department received for radios. He also updated the council on a tanker chassis currently being assembled in Rochester and expected to be received and put in service in late September.
During public comment several residents raised concerns about the financial and operational trajectory of the department. Sandy Whistler urged neighbors to follow the city budget and vote, saying the annual cost attributed to the new fire-department model has increased substantially since 2022 and is projected to rise again in 2025. Whistler said the city would be creating a multimillion-dollar independent fire department and questioned public input on that shift.
Ryan Turbyville pressed the council over a recent mutual-aid response, asking why Orono did not show up for a fire in the neighboring jurisdiction; he asked whether interagency relationships and box-alarm arrangements were functioning. Council members and the chief noted that mutual-aid box-alarm changes require county-level work and that other departments may be cautious while assessing Orono’s new department.
Chief Van Eyel said some longer response times were due to an allowed duty officer being out of position and a prior vehicle-lighting issue that has since been addressed; he described the department’s approach to duty-crew scheduling and training requirements for paid-on-call staff. He reiterated the department’s community-engagement activities and said staffing metrics are being tracked with the intention of reporting benchmarks in quarterly or year-end reports.
No formal council action was taken on these matters during open session; the council later moved to a closed session for pending litigation.
