City Council purchases new fire truck for Redfield

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City Council purchases new fire truck for Redfield

By Shiloh Appel

On Monday, October 16, 2017, all members of the Redfield City Council voted "yes" on the purchase of a new fire truck from Rosenbauer SD, LLC for $764,160.00. Setbacks were previously tested with the truck by the Spink County Fire Department and City Council in March of this year.

"If everything goes as planned, we should have the truck here, actually, before the next council meeting," said Mayor Jayme Akin.

Sheriff Kevin Schurch also gave his report to the council on the Ozzie Birdsong arrest; a call about a stolen gun, which was found at another resident's house amid drug paraphernalia; a teenager who was arrested for "putting threatening things on Facebook," and was later released; a deputy investigative report of a man taking photos of girls in Redfield; and a 911 call about a woman who was threatening to hurt herself, among many other reports.

"He is not a sex offender. It is just odd," said Schurch, of the man taking photos of girls in Redfield.

Meanwhile, the woman who was threatening to hurt herself, was not found to be in Redfield.

"We were on the phone calling back and forth with her for 20 minutes. She was really, really drunk," said Schurch. " Finally, we lost all contact with her and we searched the whole town. We just couldn't believe that she was in the city of Redfield at all. Her phone came back as a North Dakota number and that was kind of frustrating. You know, you never know if someone is actually going to do that to themselves."

After Schurch finished his report, Angelo Cosato, of Boy Scout Troop 128, asked the council if they would support the boy scouts by buying wreaths for the upcoming Christmas season. The council agreed to do so.

Spink County Emergency Manager, Larry Tebben, also updated the council on his activities and petitioned for help with the new emergency Rapid Tag System.

"I am looking for personnel that could be put in charge of this," said Tebben. "I don't have enough time to make badges and keep track of this for everybody…so if you've got some personnel for me to train on this, I would appreciate it. What they do is they make badges and keep track of all people and equipment. Clerical workers are perfect for this, because you are not going to have them out there on the wires picking up stuff."

Tebben also explained that the emergency department just finished updating their HazMat plan, which previously hadn't been updated in about eight years.

"But the importance of your HazMat material plan is it sets you up for your pre-disaster mitigation plan, which we will be beginning sometime next year," said Tebben. "As for the city of Redfield, it is a big wish-list. Anything that you might want to do to improve the city's ability to deal with a disaster. Whether you are raising houses, moving houses, et cetra. We already did one with your pumps on your sewer systems. That is a plan you had five years ago. If it is in the plan, and money becomes available, life is good. If it is not in the plan, and money becomes available, it is not as easy to get those funds."

Tebben also said that if a power outage were to happen in the city of Redfield for a couple of days it would be "rough."

"You would be surprised about the number of people who think that there is still a power switch in here. That you just flip the switch and the power is back on," said Tebben. Tebben said he has some plans on what to do if a power outage should happen, but that he suspects it will not be easy if the City of Redfield has to go without power for a time.

Tebben also discussed the city's floodplains with the council before wrapping up his annual update.