The Staples Volunteer Fire Department responded to 59 calls in 2009, Staples Fire Chief Scott Braith reported in his annual report to the Staples City Council on Feb. 23.

Local fire fighters had 29 calls in the city and 30 in the rural territory served by the city’s fire department. The department responded to 10 vehicle accidents last year in additions to fire calls. The department had 11 structure fires, eight grass fires and 13 false alarms among the more numerous calls.

Braith, who was reelected fire chief at the department’s annual meeting in January, reported that the department put in 1,388 man hours at fires, 589 hours in the city and 799 for the rural calls. The average number of firemen who reported to a fire scene was 15.5 men. “That isn’t too bad considering we were two firemen short most of the year,” Braith told the council. Those two new fire fighters - Barry Hirschey and Jamie Dolezal - have been hired and have begun their intensive training program.

In the rural area, the most fire calls were nine calls to Staples Township,

seven to Thomastown, four to Villard, three to Becker, two to Bullard and one to Fawn Lake. The portion of Bartlett Township served by Staples did not have a call.

The more serious calls this past year included the springtime flooding that kept firemen busy filling sand bags and other duties for about 1-1/2 days at several locations along the Crow Wing River, and a mutual aid call to Verndale for a fire at a large dairy barn complex. “We even had a fire on a train engine this year,” Braith said, a first for him.

There were two mutual aid calls to Verndale and two aid calls to Motley

during the year.

The Fire Department Relief Association purchased a J-5 tracked vehicle in 2009, Braith reported, for use in fighting grass fires. The volunteers has been busy working on the J-5 and a pickup and trailer that will be used to transport the J-5. It will likely be put to use sometime this month on the seasons’s first grass fire.

Along with Braith, the other department officers are First Assistant Jeff DeGeest, Second Assistant Scott Meech, Third Assistant Wade Bendson and Safety Officer Joe Hassler.

In another fire department matter, the council heard City Administrator Nate Mathews report on the fire protection contracts with the area townships. Mathews pointed out the past use of only assessed valuations was changed due to the higher valuations creating excessive fees being charged the townships.

The city’s Intergovernmental Relations committee and Mathews have devised a formula that takes into account the five-year market value average of each township, the five year average number of calls and the population being served. The city has two options for the townships, one with the above five year averages, another simply a 5 percent cap on the 2009 fee. The townships will be charged whichever is the lesser amount, Mathews said.

Under this arrangement, the seven townships combined would pay a total of $96,315 to Staples for fire protection, which is about half of the city’s $207,540 budget for fire department this year.

In other matters, the city council:

o APPROVED labor agreements with three of the four city groups. Approved were new contracts with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), covering electrical and utility department workers, the Teamsters Local 320 (police and the city’s non union personnel. Still to come is an agreement with the city’s street department.

o SCHEDULED a city council retreat for March 15 from noon to 4 p.m. at the city’s Police Station meeting room. Items for discussion will include how the city plans to budget with an expected loss of $147,000 in Local Government Aid (LGA) due to the looming state budget deficit of over a billion dollars.

o HEARD reports from Nate Mathews, city administrator, on a tour of the new city hall by U.S. Forest Service personnel who are planning a new building, and the Feb. 10 judicial ditch meeting held in the new city council chambers. He noted it was the first session of Joint Ditch panel involving Todd and Wadena counties.