Judge's injunction could slow Orono fire department effort

Long Lake and Orono will enter mediation this summer following a judge's ruling, after increasingly contentious negotiations became a lawsuit over fire service in the two Lake Minnetonka cities.

Orono contracts with the Long Lake Fire Department for fire and EMS service, but has been agitating for years to start its own department — moves Long Lake has seen as attempts at a hostile takeover. After Orono's City Council voted last month to start covering part of Orono with the nascent Orono Fire Department by July 2024, Long Lake filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit.

A Hennepin County judge granted a preliminary injunction last week, ordering Orono to stop anything that would interfere with the Long Lake Fire Department's operations until the suit ends. In the meantime, the cities work with a mediator. Long Lake has been calling for mediation, and Orono has resisted until now.

"The Court finds that Orono's goal of setting up its own fire department as soon as possible, without waiting for the end of the contracts to compete for scarce firefighting resources with Long Lake ... poses a risk of irreparable harm to Long Lake," Judge Laurie J. Miller wrote in her order.

Orono Mayor Dennis Walsh said the injunction does not interfere with Orono's plans. He insisted Orono has not violated any terms of its contract with Long Lake, and said if mediation fails Orono will fight the suit and keep pressing to form a new department.

Orono Fire Chief James Van Eyll, in a declaration quoted in the ruling, was less sanguine. He said the Orono department needed to phase in responsibility for a portion of Orono before covering the whole city. An injunction "would undermine Orono's ability to provide emergency services to the community," Van Eyll said, and "increase the cost to Orono, if it cannot hire firefighters and purchase equipment."

Long Lake Mayor Charlie Miner wondered if Orono will be able to recruit and train enough firefighters in less than a year to provide fire and EMS service for even a part of Orono.