Councilor, citizens demand answers for fire dept
By Steve Altenburg – February 13, 2025
TOWER, Minn.—The February monthly city meeting held at 5:30 pm on the 10th was actually worth paying attention to as new councilor David Wanless after firsthand witnessing what people refer to as the “nonexistent” Tower Fire Department. If not for Breitung Fire continuing to graciously show up and do Tower’s job the last two structure fires would have been much worse or potentially deadly.
Wanless is the first councilor to show actual integrity in years that expected and seemingly demanded that the city publicly address this ongoing problem openly. He has also witnessed firsthand the absurd commentary from Clerk/Treasurer Michael Schultz and other councilors pretending to act like everything fine.
Two citizens directly affected by the fires spoke up under public input at the beginning of the meeting.
- Sheri Anderson, whose father’s home burnt down, wanted to know why it took up to fort five minutes before water was even put on the fire. She also questioned why her aged father was never put in the ambulance and assessed and or taken to the hospital.
- Matt Lenci whose garage was damaged when councilor Wanless’s garage burnt down had also witnessed the same dysfunctional or incompetent Tower Fire that again if not for Breitung Fire he would have lost his garage too. He further was unable to get a simple written statement from the Tower fire chief confirming the fire for his insurance company, however after two weeks of asking/waiting, Schultz finally got it taken care of the day of the city meeting.
Other issues related to the two fires were a bagged non-functioning hydrant (there is also one by the school and unknown others) that has yet to be fixed.
Wanless wanted to know if training and maintenance had been being done but no one could even answer that. He further wanted immediate action taken to resolve some of the worst issues but clearly wasn’t going to get that. Councilor Joe Morin who pretty much did the talking on this issue wanted to get an outside consultant to give them a report on what is going on, what they need to do, and how to fix the fire dept. Council approved that action with Morin, Councilor Bobby Anderson, and Schultz put in charge of getting that done.
Councilors Anderson and Kevin Norby pretty much sat there saying nothing during the discussion and not a single person could explain why the department had been allowed to operate like this for years under its current chief Paige (Hinkel) Olson.
These problems have persisted for years and not once has the city been held accountable for its actions or lack thereof. This is just the culmination and tip of the iceberg of how bad it really is. If Wanless continues to expect accountability and receive information from multiple sources willing to expose the truth, a resolution will finally occur.
Tuesday the 11th, I spoke with Schultz, and although he was unable to explain what the city had done in even the last three years since he’s been the clerk/treasurer to fix the fire department, he insists the city has taken steps to fix it. All available evidence seems to contradict that. Further, not once has the council actual informed the public on how they have or planned how to correct the problems in all this time.
The ambulance has suffered from some of the same issues but thankfully not at such a severe level. Most recently the snowmobile/rescue sled where unable to respond to a call because the routine operational preparedness of keeping the batteries on the charges and plugged in had not been done, reportedly.
A question I asked of Schultz roughly 1½ years ago was if the fire department had been filing their reports annually with the state. It is a requirement to continue to receive state-related fire funding. As it turns out, the city within the last few weeks had been notified that the filing hasn’t been done.
Schultz stated that he had not yet confirmed if this is true yet, he also stated that it may actually have affected grants for the emergency services and not just the fire department. It is unclear why this information/correspondence from the state was not disclosed to the public and council at the city meeting.
In other city business;
- Council hired accounting firm, Schutz CPA Ltd. out of Stillwater, to perform the 2024 city audit. Cost roughly $11-13,000 which is significantly less than it has been costing (around $30,000).
- Upon updated information/request from the county regarding street repairs on North 2nd St., council approved having the county advertise for project bids. Current city share is estimated at $ $43,000.
- Council hired Tony Yeley as an EMR for the ambulance who is also currently serving as the Risk/Safety Manager at Fortune Bay.
The meeting adjourned at 6:51 p.m.