Orono to assume responsibility for most of Navarre area in July

As has been planned for months, the Orono Fire Department (OFD) will begin operations in the Casco Point and Tonkawa areas on July 1.

With a hire made on June 10, the department is currently staffed by 11 paid on-call, 10 part-time firefighters, and Chief James Van Eyll.

The OFD will operate out of two stations: a temporary storage facility, called Navarre Garage, located beside the Navarre water tower at the corner of Blaine Avenue and Lyric Avenue; and the repurposed old Public Works building on Kelley Parkway.

While the OFD will respond to calls on land, the Long Lake Fire Department (LLFD) will answer calls that occur on or around Forest Lake and the North Arm portion of Lake Minnetonka. This has not been reportedly clear to all parties involved.

Orono sent a letter on June 15, 2023, to Long Lake asking for two Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD) zones to be rescinded from the LLFD service area. These zones, which determine which fire department is paged to calls, were marked in an accompanying map.

While Forest Lake and North Arm are located within these zones, officially named Zone 75F200 and Zone 75F210, water coverage is further divided into subzones. Hennepin County Water Patrol dispatchers and fire departments on Lake Minnetonka together devised a map roughly a decade ago to assign response areas to specific fire departments. Each portion of the lake is assigned to one department, though some areas have a second responding department.

The LLFD was assigned to calls on North Arm and Forest Lake, with the Mound Fire Department acting as the second responding department on Forest Lake.

Since the OFD was not created until recently, they are not represented on the map.

With the new OFD set to begin operations on July 1, Hennepin County dispatch asked LLFD Assistant Chief Cody Farley two weeks ago how water calls would be handled between the two departments. Farley forwarded the message to Orono’s Van Eyll, who stated that Orono was “not removing any area from [LLFD’s] lake response.” Both officials confirmed with Hennepin County dispatch that the LLFD would be responsible.

Farley and LLFD Chief Mike Heiland say that no formal discussion about lake coverage has ever occurred. Heiland and the Long Lake city council state they were not aware of this development until May 30, the day after Long Lake’s Fire Forum.

Farley later stated at the joint Fire Advisory Board meeting on June 4 that, “it had always been a casual point of conversation that Long Lake Fire [Department] was going to continue to cover the lake because Orono was not going to buy a boat and cover the lake.”

Van Eyll said at the same meeting, “in our analysis (Needs Assessment) we never talked about removing any lake response from anybody” in answer to Long Lake City Council member Jahn Dyvik’s question about why the LLFD is still responsible for covering the lakes.

Orono does not currently have a boat, but did make plans in its 2024 Capital Improvement Plan to obtain a fire boat by 2026. Orono City Administrator Adam Edwards said the department may also explore contracting for water response services with another provider.

Orono has planned to operate fire boats since it released its Needs Assessment on June 12, 2023. In Section 1.2 and 7.0.3 of that document, it is stated that, “the department should have two boats. One needs to be docked on Lake Minnetonka for the summer, and the other available to respond to smaller bodies of water, such as Long Lake.”

In Section 7.2.3 of the same document, within the section titled “Recommendations for 2024,” it states that, “the City of Orono should start the process of specification and ordering of a new fire boat similar to the donated fire boat that LLFD currently uses and the new fire boat that Excelsior Fire purchased. The best practice is to have similar equipment and vehicles to our mutual aid partners.”

Orono also details plans for a dock later in Section 7.4 of the document, titled “Recommendations for 2026 and beyond.” That section states that, “the City of Orono should purchase a new wider and more stable dock for the fire boat and City’s pontoon.”

Long Lake Mayor Charlie Miner and city council member Dyvik voiced their surprise that the LLFD would be responsible for Forest Lake and North Arm at the aforementioned Fire Advisory Board meeting on June 4.

Though the Lake Minnetonka subzone map devised before the creation of the OFD shows Long Lake is responsible for Forest Lake and North Arm, and Orono planned to “start the process of specification and ordering of a new fire boat” in 2024 via its Needs Assessment, the specific language was not always clear as to who would cover the lakes as there seems to be no agreement on whether or not a discussion occurred. Apart from the CAD zone readjustment, there are no official communication documents between Orono and Long Lake city officials.

After the two sides discussed the CAD zone and Lake Minnetonka subzone maps, Dyvik stated “If you’re taking over a CAD zone, you should take over a CAD zone.”

Van Eyll eventually responded, “How many calls (inaudible)… have happened in those two areas? Like, next to zero?”

Both parties acknowledged that few calls are made on Forest Lake and North Arm, though Heiland said in a recent interview with the Laker Pioneer, “in this business, you can’t play by the odds. It’s irresponsible to think that way.”

The LLFD recently responded to two calls on June 8 and June 9, respectively; one on Forest Lake and the other on North Arm.

Orono maintains that the city and department remain committed to serving all of Orono once its contract with Long Lake expires in 2026.

Orono and Long Lake have a court-mandated mediation session scheduled for June 17 amidst their ongoing legal dispute.