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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-6-6 Special MEETING MINUTES HERO TRAINING CENTER 6/6/2023 FACILITY OPERATIONS COMMITTEE 10125 85TH STREET SOUTH COTTAGE GROVE, MINNESOTA 55016 SPECIAL MEETING – 3:00 P.M. (In-person or TEAMS) 1. CALL TO ORDER Called to order by Jennifer Levitt (Filling in for Committee Chair Pete Koerner) at 1500 hours 2. ROLL CALL Committee members present: Jennifer Levitt (Cottage Grove), Clint Gridley (Woodbury), Pete Koerner (Cottage Grove), Brenda Malinowski (Cottage Grove), Jason Posel (Woodbury), Angela Gorall (Woodbury), Greg Rinzel (Cottage Grove). Others present: Dan Anselment (Hero Manager), Tom Ehrenberg (Woodbury) and Bri Zeterlu (HERO Admin Coordinator) 3. PRESENTATIONS Levitt stated that the lobbyist that Cottage Grove utilizes stated that there is a good chance of getting a large bond for 2024 that could be used for an expansion of the HERO Training Center. The purpose of today’s meeting will be to discuss if pursuing such a bond is desired by both owners. Anselment then presented a packet to all FOC members that contained a diagram on proposal plan for an expansion of the HERO Training Center that Kraus Anderson provided a no-cost bid. The packet illustrated areas that are currently in high demand at HERO Training Center that could be expanded upon if the proper bond was obtained for 100%. Gridley stated that he was not certain that an expansion to the HERO Training Center was a priority for Woodbury at this time. Gridley advised that Woodbury has other areas that need to be addressed with funds first. Gridley then asked Dan what was missing from the HERO Training Center that would require an expansion? Anselment informed the FOC committee that the 12-lane range is currently at 70% use yet, Lakeville received a bond for a training center that will include a range and may effect HERO Training Center’s range use from southern agencies near Lakeville. Anselment then stated that both the indoor and outdoor RBT areas are also in high-demand and that adding an apartment building to the exterior would allow for three groups to train in the RBT spaces at once. Anselment then provided a map of the area to which he was speaking about expanding and showed it to the FOC Committee. Gridley then inquired as to how the RBT expansion would be used and how this would be interesting to the legislature. Rinzel stated that the RBT expansion could be used for a multitude of purposes such as lifesaving/ ladder drills for the Fire Department, Law Enforcement de-escalation and responding to multi-housing. Anselment stated that the highest volume of calls for service in some cities are generated by multi- housing complexes due to the larger populations in a smaller area, so an expansion such as this would continue to provide realistic training for first responders. Levitt advised that there had been discussion of creating a laboratory area at HERO Training Center as part of an expansion but upon further review this is not likely to be a large monetary gain for HERO. Gridley then advised that one of the primary frustrations that Woodbury is current having is records keeping and IT access from Washington County. Gridley stated that Woodbury may be considering bringing these items local. Anselment advised that Chief Redenius and Marathon had been discussing potentially utilizing the HERO Center as a staging location which could be another group to look at working with. Levitt suggest doing a smaller bond ask and see if we obtain a full match. Levitt then inquired as to how HERO remains relevant in the market while other facilities are updating or being built? Gorall stated that there is no 5- or 10-year CIP for HERO currently nor, is there a FUND balance to provide for future repairs. Gridley then inquired about the stability of Rasmussen University at HERO due to many educational institutes struggling. If Rasmussen were to pull out of their future contracts, then HERO would be in a deficit. Anselment then informed the committee that he has already been in contact with another County agency to potentially have them as an additional tier member which would offset the increased operational cost that HERO is seeing on an annual basis. Anselment then advised that there is a potential for Inveris (the current range system) to go out of business. If this were to occur, then all of the range carriers would be left non-operational and useless. This would cause HERO to have to set up a new carrier system with another target carrier vendor which would cost ~$320,000.00 to replace. Gridley asked if HERO could expand its medical services which would be beneficial to Cottage Grove and Woodbury paramedics. Rinzel advised that when HERO was looking for institutions initially it had reached out to Regions who in the primary for medical training and they did not want to be in a location so far from St. Paul. Levitt then inquired if Woodbury was interested in putting in for the bond or not. Gridley stated that Woodbury needs to take some time to investigate their bonding bills and will provide an answer prior to the application deadline on June 16th. Levitt advised that Cottage Grove has a large expansion on 100th Street and is concerned that if a bond was asked for HERO that a HERO Bond could remove money from the street expansion project. 4. CONSENT AGENDA 5. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS 6. REGULAR AGENDA A. Future Bonding Request Recommendation: Discuss whether to submit a bonding request. 7. ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn by Gridley at 1538 hours