Lutsen Town Board plans for retirement of Fire Chief Paul Goettl in January and seeks election judges
The final meeting in Dec. for the Lutsen Town Board was busy. The board discussed and prepared for the upcoming retirement of Fire Chief Paul Goettl, began preparations to make the Lutsen Town Hall suitable as an emergency shelter, and discussed the need for election judges.
After numerous years leading the Lutsen Fire Department, Goetll will retire in January.
In preparation for his retirement, the Lutsen Town Board intends to merge the Fire Chief and existing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Chief roles into one position. During the Jan. meeting, the board will vote on the merger and the new Lutsen Fire Chief.
“So then we’d have one fire chief who oversees both EMS and fire,” Lollie Cooper, the Lutsen Town Board supervisor, said. “Then there’d be two assistant chiefs, one for EMS, one for fire,” Cooper said. She added that merging the two positions will bring more unity to the group.
In other fire department news, Cooper said the fire department received two applications from individuals interested in joining the Lutsen Fire Department. “That’s always a pleasure,” she said. “We were always looking for people.”
The applicants will move forward with the required firefighting training offered in Cook County.
During the meeting, the board discussed approaching the Cook County Board of Commissioners to request support to prepare the Lutsen Town Hall as an emergency shelter. Given the severe winter storm events leading up to Christmas in 2022, the board wants to revive the town hall as an emergency shelter to house individuals in need during power outages or storm events.
“We’ve been working on it for a while,” Cooper said. “And hopefully, it will come to fruition. I will be trying to get on the docket next month to talk to the commissioners about it.”
Cooper said the Township has some money in the budget for the emergency shelter preparations but would require additional funding support. In the meantime, the board will move forward with purchasing a generator. Cooper said the town hall already has mattresses and a few minor supplies.
Looking ahead to the election season, the board discussed the need for three election judges for the March elections. “If anybody in the Lutsen area is an election judge, we would certainly love to have them, and they can contact us through the website,” Cooper said.
In other news, the Lutsen Town Board is exploring streaming monthly meetings online. In early Dec., the board secured a Zoom subscription and intends to begin providing the Zoom link to the public on the website.
WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with Lollie Cooper, the supervisor for the Lutsen Town Board, following the Dec. 19 meeting. The audio from the interview is below.
Kalli Hawkins December 28, 2023
