Centerville looks to fill vacant council seat

CENTERVILLE — The city of Centerville needs to fill an empty seat on the City Council. Michelle Lakso, who ran unopposed during the 2022 election, has resigned her position on the council, and the city has opted to appoint an interim member to serve out her term until the next election can be held.

The city is currently seeking qualified candidates to apply for the vacancy.

Lakso was never sworn in for her

2023-2027 term. She explained that she recently experienced a lot of change in her personal life and chose to step away to focus on her family. She entered the last election when she saw no one had filed for the seat, and wanted to step in and make a difference when it looked like no one else would. Lakso previously served on the City Council from 2005to 2009. The role was rewarding in many ways, she noted, but also frustrating. Many government spaces are heavily male-dominated, so it was important for her that there be some female representation on the Centerville council.

“One of the things we struggle with is that we don’t necessarily do a good job of trying to have a representative government,” Lakso said. “If you look at demographics, it’s not all people who are white and middle income.”

For many individuals, there are social and economic barriers to serving in local government. It can be a struggle for those from a lower socioeconomic class, or with a lot of extra demands on their time. Lakso saw firsthand the challenges of being a working mom serving in local government.

“You barely get off your computer for work, squeeze in dinner, and off to City Council,” Lakso said. “That’s if your kids are able to be in good care.”

Lakso hoped the appointment

SEE VACANCY, PAGE 5

Centennial Fire Department, is expected to go over budget this year. Circle Pines City Administrator Patrick Antonen estimated this might be a $10,000$15,000 cost from reserve funds. The budget for medical calls was set at $17,000 for 2022, but the department spent $27,000.

The fire department also had some serious expenses in 2022, many of them related to equipment, fuel and personnel. The department is newly under the leadership of Chief Dan Retka. As the head of operations for SBM, he also acts as administrative head for the Centennial Fire Department.

It’s a nationwide problem, Retka said. And it hurts the fire department most when it frequently deploys fire engines and full crews, often when the incident does not require so much equipment and personnel.

The COVID-19 pandemic and aging demographics likely played a large role in the call volume increase. COVID-19 was especially damaging, in that it made people quick to panic and placed a high demand on emergency services, all while emergency response departments were losing employees due to strain and burnout.

“It’s not a fire department’s job to be rolling on bloody noses,” Retka said. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that anything other than a critical call—heart attack, crash rescue, fire—anything else, we may just have to start rolling a duty chief to ring up the station or handle it by themselves,” Retka said. “If we can slow down opening up those doors and rolling out the big truck, that’s great. It’s killing the budget right now.”

The firefighting teams work hard and deserve to get paid, he added, but the pace is leading toward low morale and burnout. Retention is another issue the department is facing, especially as some fire crew members approach retirement. The department is always looking for new firefighters, and is currently hiring a full-time recruitment and retention position to help with the problem.

It doesn’t help that the department is also badly in need of updated equipment. Some grant funding will allow the department to purchase three new thermal imagers as well as a Ram truck for one of the battalion chiefs, but aging fire engines present a problem.

“When we came here, Engine 11 dang near had cobwebs on it,” Retka said. “We need to slow it down. Last year we went way over budget with truck maintenance. Our trucks were called out more than ever last year, and they are really beginning to show their age.”

The department is currently working on measures to decrease the quantity of medical calls and give the fire teams a break.

Public education is one part. Many calls can be prevented by a little extra attention to household surroundings. Fire departments used to help residents by surveying their homes and helping people identify hazards—Retka suggested this practice might be a good start. Even just understanding how their smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors work can help citizens avoid making an unnecessary call to the fire department.

While symptoms like chest pain, breathing trouble and serious injury definitely warrant an emergency call, people should consider whether a trip to urgent care or some other medical assistance would solve the problem before they pick up the phone to call 911.

The department hopes to work with the Anoka County Emergency Communications Center, which manages dispatch services, to streamline response protocols in the future, making sure that entire fire crews aren’t dispatched without need.

“Despite the high number of callouts, the crew from Centennial performed magnificently, and I would not expect any less,” Retka said. “We are in serious need of members from our communities to answer the call to serve. We have immediate openings that require no prior experience or certifications. We will train and certify.”