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Also in conjunction with the consideration to allow development prior to • municipal services, there would be the possibility of future expenditures for the Elk River Fire Department for additional tankers and protection of our rural non-municipal water supply areas. This is an area of great concern to the Fire Department as the Elk River area continues to grown beyond our municipal water supply areas. There are many concerns referencing expansion of commercial and industrial development into a non-municipal water supply area. Not only the size of the buildings, the type of occupancy, location in reference to other buildings, but our first concern is adequacy of the Fire Department to protect those buildings. One must also think about the additional costs for the commercial industrial user when looking at development in a sewer and water area vs. development into a non sewer and water area. One area as Fire Chief of the Elk River Fire Department I am constantly focusing on is in reference to the Insurance Service Office/Commercial Risk Services Incorporated Public Protection Classification for the City of Elk River. There are three basic elements considered when a city is graded in reference to their public protection classification number. The three elements include: 1. Receiving and handling fire alarms. 2. The Fire Department. 3. Water supply. Measurements of these three elements are • then developed into a public protection classification number on a relative scale from one to ten, with ten representing less than the minimum recognized protection. A public protection class is an important number used by the insurance industry to determine fire insurance premiums for both commercial and residential property. When a city achieves an improved public protection classification number. Citizens can generally expect to pay lower property insurance premiums. There are other factors, however, such as building construction, occupancy, exposure conditions, water supply, and special hazards that may also affect insurance rates. The City of Elk River currently has a public protection classification number of five. A public protection classification is one guide used to develop insurance premiums for commercial, industrial, and residential property in a given city. As a basic principal, the better a community classification, the lower the insurance premiums for occupied property. On that basis the goal of the Elk River Fire Department is to improve our public protection classification number to a class four in the future. We will be focusing on future equipment purchases and apparatus purchases and other Fire Department improvements to attain the goal of lowering our public protection classification number. •