Former firefighter challenges fire chief's report on county's fire rating; former commission chair fails to disclose results
- Roger Sims
- Apr 24
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 25
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – In the wake of request the previous week by a former firefighter for updated information on the ISO rating for the Linn County's rural fire department, Commissioner Jim Johnson asked county fire chief to explain the new report in the commission meeting on Monday, April 20.
However, during his discussion, Fire Chief Hegwald revealed that Johnson, who was commission chair in 2025, had received a letter notifying the county of downgrades in December. Johnson never publicly disclosed that he received the letter. The lower rating could result in higher insurance premiums for residences and businesses.
Hegwald reported that last July and August, the county fire department went through an ISO (Insurance Service Office) inspection. He explained that the inspectors look at multiple things. It’s basically three parts. The fire department is one of the smallest parts. Communications is a large part of it and water supply being a large part of it.
Hegwald said that inspectors go through and analyze everything. They look at different buildings and structures in the county and come up with a fire flow needed for the largest buildings. Then they go through and analyze all the information that they gather.
Hegwald said, they come back in December with what they think the county rating should be based on this. The ISO classification is 1 through 10, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst.
He said the county lost one whole class on its water supply. And that’s not the water supply that the water department can deliver, it’s the water supply that’s coming out of the grounds at the towns and different fill spots that we have in the community.
Hegwald said that if a lower score is given, ISO gives the department one year to rectify that.
“With the water supply being the biggest point loss that we had. That’s not something we can rectify. With communications done with them, they questioned how the inspection was done last time and don’t think the water supply was figured correctly,” said Hegwald. “And I have documentation where they have communicated that to me.
“And ISO will come in a speak to the commissioners about it. So, going into that we were a 5/10. The10 being anything outside of 5 miles from a fire station, you’re going to be rated a 10. They’re saying that anything outside of 5 miles, your travel time is too great.
“So, we get this letter in December. Jim was the board president, chairman at the time that the board received the letter saying ‘Hey, we’re going to spend the next 12 months to let you rectify any problems and try and make it better.’
“And they will issue that new class, but that won’t be issued until November or December of this year. So if you walk, into your insurance agency right now and you live within five miles of a fire station, you’re going to get a class 5 rating.”
Hegwald said that a whole point was lost on the new rating. The summary showed the county had gone from an 05/10 to an 06/10.
Commissioner Jason Hightower asked, “And there’s nothing we can do to rectify these things?”
Hegwald told the commissioners that ISO is not a government agency and only about 50% of the insurance agencies use that ISO rating. He also said that, because of the flammable contents in houses, that insurance companies were looking at lowering the number from 5 miles to 2 miles anyway.
Hegwald said that the things that they have rectified the issues that they can fix. He said that they said that one truck was missing a nozzle. He said they took a picture of the nozzle that was on the truck and sent it in. But the water supply is the biggest thing because the fire department and the county do not own water lines.
“We’re relying on the cities and water supplies to supply that flow,” said Hegwald.
Hegwald said that once they received the official document that they could work off of it.
Johnson asked, “So, no one has received the official document yet?”
Hegwald said no one had received it..
Tom Kemper, rural Parker resident and former firefighter who spoke during the public comment period on the agenda, disputed Hegwald’s reporting on the ISO ratings.
Kemper said that there were four subcategories that the county was rated on and that the county went down in three of those four categories.The first subcategory is emergency communication and that is the only category in which the county’s rating improved. That was because Sheriff James Akes provided a second dispatcher.
Kemper asked the commissioners to clarify that Hegwald said that it was all water supply and the fire department doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Hightower said that was correct.
Kemper said that he fire department counted for 50 points out of 105 points on the ISO’s inspection. He continued by going through the categories:
Communications is worth 10 points. In 2017, it was 8.15 but went up to a 9.70 in 2025..
Fire Department is worth 50 points. In 2017, it was 19.55 and went down to 17.24 in 2025.
Water Supply is worth 40 points. In 2017, it was 22.11 and went down to 13.61.
Community Risk Reduction is worth 5 points. In 2017, it was 3.81 and went down to 2.96.
Kemper said he questioned Hegwald's statement that the big loss was water supply.
“Let me tell you something here,” Kemper told the commissioners. “Number one, I ran around with a guy by the name of Dan Conrad back in 2017. He’s an ISO guy who had been doing it for 30 years. The guy knows what he is doing.
“One thing I remember him telling me is this county, of all the counties in the country that he’s tested that are around 10,000 people, this county has a better water supply than any other rural county in the country.”
Kemper said before he says too much he would like to get the full report from from 2025 so he could actually look at why the county went down 8.5 points, from 22.11 to 13.61 points, on water supply.
“Because in these reports, they’ll have every hydrant flow that was tested in 2017, and they’ll have every hydrant flow that they tested in 2025,”. Kemper explained. “I guarantee you, we tested the courthouse back in the day and we actually, if I’m not mistaken, we had four different supplies.
“Yes, the hydrant here is not good enough, but we showed that through a water shuttle program, which from what I understand Randy does not like to shuttle water. And that’s probably why we suffer these 8 point losses. We get this 8 point loss back. We’re back to a class 5. OK, we’re three points from a class 7. Something to consider too. We keep going down on classes like this.”
Johnson said that Kemper’s time was up.
But the two other commissioners, Alison Hamilton and Jason Hightower said that Kemper could continue.
“So we need to look at why our flows are down so far,” Kemper said. “Public Wholesale 13 is riding all through this country. We have water like you wouldn’t believe. The only place we’re short is Blue Mound and Centerville. You look over on the right on some of these things that we lost points. We got two new CAFS (Compressed Air Foam System) trucks. We got a taller aerial. We got one larger tanker. Those should all have made us score better.
“Insurance companies don’t care about ISO. I think I heard him say this. There are a few out there but most pay attention to it. And if you remember, every time he comes in here looking for a truck or a pair of gear he mentions ISO. It helps us. So, it is important.
“Everybody in this room and everybody in this county when we suffer a class loss is paying more money for insurance. Every business is paying more. If the people are paying more to insurance that’s going to Des Moines or Chicago or New York, they’re not spending it here in Mound City or Linn County.
“That money is gone forever. I think it’s very important. Like Randy says, if he’s got six months or a year, I think it’s very important that we figure out what our problem is and get it fixed before we lose this money.”
Hamilton asked County Clerk Chasity Ware to also send the full report to the commissioners.
Hamilton said that she had the Local Emergency Operations Plan (LEOP) put on her notes. She said she did not mention it this morning, but it is expired and it’s on her list of things to get done next week when the commission meets again..
Kemper turned in a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request for the full Public Protection Classification (PPC) summary report, the letter Johnson received in December, and the communications Hegwald had received saying that flow rates were done wrong in 2017.
Kemper said that he would like to be on the agenda next week if he receives the full report in time.
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