The Safety and Licensing Committee met 07/28/2021. There were a few alcohol license applications that were approved, but the majority of the meeting was taken up with information items, in particular the Fire Department’s 2021 Mid-Year Report.
Fire Chief Jeremy Hansen went over it with the committee members. He said that the strategic planning they did last year helped drive a couple changes in the mid-year report. On page 6, they updated their training categories which shows as “New measure.” They did that because the Insurance Service Office is a group that audits fire departments and gives them a 1-9 classification. which then influences the fire portion of a business’s or homeowner’s insurance rates. The fire department had all the information already but have redesigned it to meet ISO requirements. They’ve also, through their strategic planning process, taken steps that will help them get listed as a Class 1 fire department at their next audit. They are currently a Class 2.
Page 7 listed their EMT response times which was also a new measurement, now that the Fire Department had moved to an EMT level. (Although he didn’t explicitly mention this in his verbal report, the written report does include a note that “the Emergency Medical Services Division increased the department’s service level from First Responders to Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) at the beginning of 2021 improving the level of care provided to citizens and visitors in the City of Appleton.”) Chief Hansen said that this was a good measure as it related modalities of patient care.
Also on page 7 was the number of fire department personnel that are certified as paramedics. They are increasing their number of paramedics so that they can provide a higher level of pre-hospital care to the community. Right now about 15% of their employees are certified as paramedics and they hope to get that closer to 25% or 30% in the next 18 months.
He talked about the “Enhanced Community Safety” section on page 8 where they fell short. Typically, they have 16,000-17,000 students a year who participate in public educational programs. In 2020, that dropped down to 254, and in 2021 it was 0. That was all related to Covid, and he was hopeful that once the school system opens up this fall, that number will start rising. He didn’t see them meeting their normal 16,000-17,000 participants this year, but as long as Covid stays quiet they should be able to easily hit it next year. [I guess we’ll see about that.]
He opened things up for questions.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) asked what the different between a being a Class 1 and a Class 2 fire department was, and where did that designation come from?
Chief Hansen answered that the Insurance service Office is the group that develops and determines if a department is a class 1 or 2. Every 5 years, they perform an audit, and there are several categories they review, some that the fire department has control over and some that it doesn’t. For example, one thing they review is the hydrants—how many the city has, what size water mains they’re connected to, their flow, and their age. The fire department doesn’t have much control over those, but the Department of Public Works has a program to upgrade a certain number of hydrants a year. That helps the fire department get more points. There are other categories like how many fire trucks and ladder trucks they have as well as their level of staffing.
At their last audit, they had roughly 88 points which makes them a Class 2 fire department. At 90 points, they would become a Class 1 fire department, so they’re only 2 points shy of that. They average 25 uniformed personnel on staff every day for which they receive 7.51 points out of a possible 15. If they increased their staffing to 30 people a day they would be able to get all 15 points and become a Class 1 fire department. He said he had some proposals to increase staffing [which I assume will be reviewed at a future meeting]. He reiterated that a fire department’s class rating does drive the insurance rates that most insurance carriers use to determine their rates for both businesses and homeowners.
Alderperson Van Zeeland asked if that was something that a business generally looks for when they’re looking to relocate to a city. She wanted to get an idea of what increasing the fire department class rating would improve for the city beyond the fire department.
Chief Hansen said the first positive was that if they’re being evaluated by an outside agency on how good they are as an organization, if they receive a Class 1 rating, that’s really good. From the community standpoint, they, in theory, have better fire protection, a better water supply, and better hydrants to move that water, as well as the staff to get to a location quickly and put out the fire. So, being a Class 1 fire department, would benefit to the community in that sense.
Monetarily with a Class 1 fire department, home owners would see a potential reduction in their insurance rates. It wouldn’t be a windfall and perhaps would just be $10 per home, but throughout the whole community that added up to some savings. Businesses would probably see larger savings because their premiums are much higher than a homeowner.
Additionally, it’s very prestigious to be a Class 1 fire department; there are only five such departments in the state of Wisconsin—Green Bay, Fond Du Lac, Milwaukee, Madison, and one other city he couldn’t think of off the top of his head. [I’ve honestly never associated the word “prestigious” with Green Bay, Fond Du Lac, or Milwaukee.]
Alderperson Michael Smith (District 10) asked if the fire department knew about the Department of Public Works’ program to replace fire hydrants.
Chief Hansen said the Fire Department has no influence on what DPW’s water program. DPW has a very good replacement program and they understand the water system and what pipes age better than he ever will. There are different types of hydrants. The first type that has two outlets on the sides and one big one in the middle which is called a steamer connection. The other type that just has two connections coming out which are only 2.5” outlets; those are the hydrants they want to upgrade to a hydrant with a 6” outlet because they can get a ton more water out of it. Every time the size of the opening is doubled the amount of water that comes out quadruples.
He noted that DPW has a great replacement plan and during the Fire Department’s last audit they explained their system to replace so many hydrants every year. Over time the Fire Department will get a higher point value in the water department area. [It kind of makes me wonder, if they’re only two points shy of getting a Class 1 rating, is it possible for them to get those from water system upgrades alone instead of increasing staffing levels?]
Alderperson Smith said that, being on the Utilities Committee, he gets updates about the water main breaks. He’s seen water breakage with a loss of 100,000 gallons from pipes that are from 1912, so he was wondering how they determine the fire hydrants they replace since the Fire Department is relying on them. He didn’t think it was bad the Fire Department was not part of the process, but he thought there would have been some working together.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) said he had noticed some of the hydrants in his neighborhood are changing color and he knew that the color was based on the volume of the hydrant flow. He wondered if there was a change in the volume in the Pierce Park neighborhood since the hydrants were changing color or was there a coding change to the color scheme?
Chief Hansen said there is a nationally recognized coding for hydrant flow based off the color that the hydrant is painted; however, the city of Appleton does not do that and the color of our hydrants is just an arbitrary choice. [I found that statement interesting in light of the article the Post Crescent posted only a year ago stating that the color of Appleton’s hydrants does indeed indicate the water flow rate.]
He went on to say that it would be amazing if that happened in Appleton. As firefighters, they really like to see that. If a hydrant has a blue cap on it, they know that hydrant gives more than 1,500 gallons of water a minute, whereas if the cap is red they know it will only give 500 gallons or less so they stay away from those.
Alderperson Schultz asked if there was a reason Appleton doesn’t have that system in place.
Chief Hansen said there were issues with the upkeep and maintenance of painting those colors and they would also have to verify the flow on a regular basis. The city selects a random sample size of hydrants that they flow test every year, but they don’t verify the flow out of every single hydrant. Since the city doesn’t do that, the Fire Department has a backup that works just fine and mainly consists of not using hydrants at the end of dead end streets and trying to pull water from a hydrant on a main street like Franklin or College or even Drew street as opposed to pulling from a smaller side street.
Alderperson Van Zeeland asked if going from a Class 2 to a Class 1 rating would make the department eligible for more grants and things like that.
Chief Hansen said it would definitely be something they would put on a grant application. It’s very prestigious to be a Class 1 fire department and departments that achieve that rank put stickers on all their trucks advertising that fact.
There were no other questions, so the committee moved on to the other items on the agenda.
Police Chief Todd Thomas had no Liquor Law Violations to report.
They moved on to the City Clerk Report.
Clerk Kami Lynch updated the committee on special event applications. As a result of Covid, the committee had modified the supplemental documents required for special event applications, but the city was now no longer requiring a Covid mitigation plan with special event applications. Most larger events that are going to occur this year have already applied [which I took to mean they had included Covid mitigation plans with their applications], but the city had now removed that component to me more consistent with what’s been going on. She did, however, note that things are currently changing again, so they might be adding that Covid mitigation requirement back in.
She then updated them on Appleton’s rezoning plan and timeline which I posted about here.
Chief Thomas then gave a reminder about the National Night Out event at Jones Park on August 3rd.
On Tuesday, August 3rd from 5pm to 8pm they’ll have a big event in Jones Park. They’ll also hold 28 block parties across the city. Jones Park will have the displays they have normally had down in Houdini Plaza, plus a few more as well as some other events for the kids.
Alderperson Smith wondered if the even was dropping in numbers. They used to have 4-5 block parties in his district and now it’s down to only 1, so he was wondering if that was the case across the city.
Chief Thomas said he’d have to take a look, but he didn’t think it had changed much.
There were no more questions about that so they moved on to the the Fire Inspection Update and report about the Fire Protection Engineer.
Fire Chief Hansen said that one of the big components of their fire prevention program is to get out in the business and industries and check that exit lights are working, exits aren’t blocked, and other things of that nature. Covid put a damper on that, and they suspended that program in 2020. Back in May, as Covid settled down a bit, they reinstituted the fire inspection program. Thry do about 6,000 inspections in a year–3,000 during the first half and 3,000 during the second half. They completed 98% of their inspections for the first half of the year. They will make up the remaining 2% in the second half the year as well as complete the second half of the year’s inspections. They’re right where they need to be with fire prevention and inspection activities.
The second item he addressed was their Fire Protection Engineer position. Their current Fire Protection Engineer gave advanced notice that he’ll be retiring in January. Chief Hansen was thankful for that extensive advanced notice because his position is very specialized. He is a non-sworn, civilian employee and does all the plan reviews and underground tank inspections for businesses and industries.
His position is important for to the Fire Department because if they don’t do a plan review (which they can typically turn around in 30 days) then it goes to the state which can take 2-4 months to complete a plan Review. This is a critical position which they’re hoping to fill with a qualified candidate. The goal would be to have some overlap before he leaves leaves. They hoped get that job listing posted in the next few weeks.
The committee had no questions about that report and no further items on their agenda so they adjourned.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=860957&GUID=A862F70A-BCF0-42C8-A784-DBECF0CE35AC&Options=info|&Search=
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