Agenda - Council - 04/12/2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7) buildings are placed in the middle of this acreage. It will be more valuable as time goes on but we have thought about keeping a part of the property. Boardmember Ward inquired why the plan is to move the Police Department out of this area of the City where most of the population is~ Police Chief Way stated that City Hall is moving and the Police Department and City Offices go hand in hand and with the build up of the Town Center, we will be in the middle of the most populated area. Ms. Ward stated she feels that comment is a little premature. She is not sure the Town Center will "fly like they say". Boardmember Paplham stated that Fire Departments have fixed response time. Police Officers are moving around - our response time is different. Ms. Ward inquired if the Chief Way and Ofricer Paplham did not think this would make a difference. Both replied that it should not make a difference. Chief Way added that it would probably be more convenient because of less congestion such as the school and busses, etc. The location is not a critical piece for a Police Department'. We may be looking at a substation eventually. Councilmember Pearson felt that the Town Center area will be the core area of the City - it is close to Highway #10 - north/south corridors and there is easier access. Chair Anderson stated that Police are more likely to not respond from stations about 85 percent of the time. Now with computers in cars - more and more response comes from where the officer is. Ms. Ward suggested that the Police l)epartment may want to publish information in the Ramsey Resident about how this move will not make a difference with regard to Police calls response time. Councilmember Pearson reported that he lives off of Highway #10 and when he needed {>fficer assistance for his Mom, it didn't take any more than three minutes and they were there. Chair Anderson stated it is very important to have the Police Department located with thc City Hall. With regard to Emergency Management, Fire Chief Kapler stated that this building is currently our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Fire Station I is our back up. Our intent is that our EOC be put in the new facility. Ms. Ward commented that right now the school comes here for emergency evacuation and inquired what happens if the City Hall is not here. Police Chief Way stated that it would be Lord of' Life Church - there has already been discussion relating to that. They are already our backup. Chair Anderson stated that the EOC location is not as important as an area for sustaining, communications, etc. Building Code. Fire Chief Kapler stated that last summer, the City of Ramsey adopted an amendment to the Building Code which requires sprinklers in some of the town homes, etc. This is a big step in fire prevention. This would be for town home units ~ver 8500 feet - this is just on new units - it is not retroactive. Police (ihief' Way proceeded to give an update to the Board. l) [ liring's. The Police Department hired two new officers last year - one in January and one about Ibur months ago. We are now up to 19 officers. Major incidents. Chief Way reported there were some major incidents in 2004. Last March, there was a shooting at an officer at a call. There were two homicides in the City, ~md most recently, the explosion at Premier Development. We were in the news far too ol'ten! '['here were six fatal motor vehicle accidents. One of those was a motorcycle chase which ended up here in Ramsey. That person is still on a respirator. Public Safety Board - February 17, 2005 Page 3 of 5