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Estherville City Council Approves New Fire Dept. Membership Requirements

February 08, 2022 Steve Schwaller

(Estherville)– The Estherville City Council Monday evening adopted some revised membership requirements in an effort to attract more people to serve on the city’s Fire Department. Fire Chief Travis Sheridan told the council the department, which is authorized for 30 members, is down to 25 currently. He says finding new members is becoming more and more challenging. Sheridan requested the council consider doing away with a requirement department members live within city limits. He suggested members be able to live within a five mile radius of Estherville, and that consideration will be given by the council if someone outside that radius should want to join. Sheridan also recommended the council lower the minimum age to serve on the department from 21 currently to 18…

“Now it’s not guaranteed they’ll stay here because they could still go off to college but at least they have that education that when life gets busy they can still support their communities wherever they end up. And so more departments are thinking like that and start partnering up with the colleges and the high schools. I think volunteering hurts as it is today, but this is another avenue of helping to fix it.”

Sheridan added the young members would not start off driving trucks right away.

The council voted unanimously to approve the revisions recommended by Sheridan.