Perley fire station to grow in resources, but losing its firefighters, some former volunteers say

Many former firefighters in Perley, Minnesota are upset that the City of Perley-Lee Township fire department will now be joining with another nearby city.

One Whistleblower reached out to us, saying the move has caused a large loss of firefighters local to the area. Some worry that'll mean a slower response time to emergencies in Perley.

The city of Perley is a small one: as of 2010, the population was less than a hundred. So it might make sense for its fire station to join forces with neighboring city, Hendrum, in order to expand its resources.

Former chief, Kasey Hegreberg, tells us the department’s board hopes it will improve the overall quality of the fire station.

"It's still gonna be Perley, it's still gonna be our fire trucks,” Hegreberg said, “but still, they're in charge, they're in command of Perley fire department, and it's gonna be a lot more training, it's gonna be more, more of everything."

But Hegreberg tells us that due to this move, the opposite is happening: as volunteers are dwindling.

"Well, right now there's two people on the fire department,” he said. “There used to be 16 people."

Hegreberg says even though the firefighters are volunteers, they still received a small stipend for putting out fires.

In Perley, when a firefighter retires, he or she would not receive any benefits, as there is no relief association. Once the fire department joins with Hendrum, firefighters will be eligible for benefits. The downside? They’ll have to start from scratch.

Hegreberg’s wife, and former Perley rescue chief, Crystal, explains:

"Say we have one guy that's been on there for 30 years,” she said. “Now that we switched, you have to go put in an application to be on the fire department again, and so he would be starting all over again. He would not get anything from those 30 years that he put in."

In fact, another former firefighter we spoke with served at Perley's fire station for 45 years. He tells Valley News Live he initially planned to continue on with the department as it joined forces with Hendrum—but since he would have lost all those years, and on top of that, he would have had to undergo new training for just a year or so of service, he chose to retire while still in Perley.

"I don't know what to say about that,” Kasey Hegreberg said, “I think there's other ways we could have taken, other than them jumping the gun to go with Hendrum....It's a shame, nothing's gonna be, no recognition, no thank you, no nothing."

The drastic loss of firefighters has some worried about response time in an emergency.

"If we had a fire,” Hegreberg said, “we got all the equipment here, but we don't have anybody that has the knowledge to run it...if we have a call, they're gonna, it's gonna be on Hendrum. Hendrum's gonna have to pick up the pieces for Perley."

The City of Perley's mayor, Ron Plemmons, tells us that nothing will change with the move, other than the meeting locations and new training—now to be set in Hendrum.

Plemmons adds the only reason former firefighters oppose the move to Hendrum is because of misinformation—which Plemmons says Hegreberg himself is giving people, since the board let him go with the move to Hendrum. Plemmons tells us it was Hegreberg’s idea initially to join forces with Hendrum.

Hegreberg did tell Valley News Live he was let go as fire chief, but he says it’s because he moved 20 minutes away, and could still volunteer as a firefighter.

We visited the fire station, but no one was there. We also reached out to the Perley-Lee fire board president, but have not heard back yet.

Meanwhile one board member tells Valley News Live the move could have been handled better.

The City of Perley and Lee Township fire board will meet at the Perley Fire Hall Tuesday at 7 p.m.

We're told members of the public may attend to voice any concerns in the beginning, but the second portion of the meeting will be closed to the public.