Public safety leaders in Prior Lake provided an update on operations to the city council Tuesday, Jan. 28.
The fire department became the primary medical response department midway through 2024 and as a result, call responses have spiked. The department responded to 2,004 calls last year, up from about 1,200 in 2023, and Fire Chief Rick Steinhaus said that number is likely to rise in 2025. The medical responses alone in the second half of 2024 nearly doubled the responses in the same time period in 2023.
The average response time is now at six minutes, 39 seconds, a good rate, Steinhaus said.
He also said 2023 transition to a full-time firefighting staff has helped answer those calls, although the department is currently hiring three more firefighter/emergency medical technician roles. The city’s addition of a lighter response vehicle has also helped response times, along with preventing wear and tear on the city’s fire engines.
Both the fire and police departments are preparing to present the results of workload analysis projects to the city council in February.
Operations for the police department have been more stable, according to data presented by Police Chief Liam Duggan.
In the second half of 2024, the rates of most crimes remained fairly stagnant compared to the same months of 2023. Those crime categories include motor vehicle accidents, assaults, domestic assaults, criminal sexual conduct, fraud, robbery and burglary calls.
Driving while under the influence calls were the only category with a significant increase — up 14 percent for that period — and Duggan noted that these will likely continue to increase in 2025 through more enforcement.
Ponds Park update
During the council’s work session, Steve Hart, parks and recreation manager, and Nick Monserud, public works director, said the city’s plans for the second phase of construction in Ponds Park is ready to be opened for bids.
Construction for the second phase is scheduled to begin Aug. 1, following the completion of the summer baseball season. Renovating ball fields 3 and 4 are the bulk of the second phase, along with a plaza between the fields.
Phase one, completed in 2023, includes the park’s playground, accessible trails and ball fields 1 and 2. Drainage and turf issues in the fields completed in the first phase have been addressed, according to their report, and the natural drainage of the more southern second phase should prevent those problems for the other fields.
Editor Robb Jeffries contributed to this report.