White Salmon’s Fire Department and Klickitat County’s Fire District No.3, which serves the communities of Husum, BZ Corner and Snowden, have functioned separately over decades in operation, but a community-led task force examining the two departments are recommending a merging of forces to keep up with rising expenses and to maximize resources in the community.
The West Klickitat Community Task Force was created last year to examine the feasibility of creating a regional fire authority to improve regional emergency capabilities and services. The task force carries over work that began in 2013 with a former citizen task force that initially explored the idea of a regional fire authority.
Earlier this month the task force, made up of residents within the boundaries of the two agencies, released a final report recommending a transition to a regional model to achieve a sustainable level of service.
Regional Authority
So what is a regional fire authority exactly? Legislation approved in 2004 allowed two or more fire protection jurisdictions, such as county fire districts, cities, towns, and tribes, to unify its leadership, training, recruiting programs, volunteers, facilities and equipment under a single taxing district.
Creation of the regional fire authority requires approval by a simple majority of voters within its boundaries, and operates according to a plan approved by a planning committee and by city councilors and fire district commissioners.
A vote to approve the binding plan was set for Monday, May 1 by the planning committee. A copy of the draft plan is available on the city of White Salmon’s website.
Bob Merritt, a consultant who advised the task force during its planning sessions over the past few months, said that the work done by the task force was done independently to allow for an unbiased conclusion.
“We wanted an independent review, and we wanted an independent report, and we wanted an independent opinion. We specifically asked the fire chiefs and other folks to not intervene, and none of the folks here have any affiliation with the fire departments,” Merritt said.
Members of the task force presented their findings to White Salmon city councilors and commissioners of fire district no. 3.
According to the report, the task force found deficiencies in both agencies’ volunteer capacity and training.
“Our community is fortunate to have fellow citizens volunteering their time to train and assist in times of distress and emergency,” the report said. However, it also found that current volunteer levels do not allow for an adequate response to each emergency.
The report found that neither entity has adopted training standards for any position, nor training attendance requirements for safe and effective participation in emergency events.
“Current training levels for volunteers do not meet state requirements and are not sufficient to provide consistently safe responses for our volunteers or to the many different kinds of emergencies that can occur in our community,” the report continued.
The two entities are limited by the need to recruit, train and retain volunteers to fill middle leadership positions, the report said.
“A majority of the volunteers made less than 50% of the trainings. People have busy lives, they are altruistic to volunteer as an emergency responder, and we’re all grateful for that. But it’s clear that there needs to be a training program that provides more easily accessible training that’s more strategically targeted for people to participate,” said task force member Alison Hensey.
The report found that the fire threat in the community has increased greatly due to a rising population, residential growth into wild land areas, and longer, more severe fire seasons.
“The threats go beyond preventing and fighting fires. The majority of emergency calls are medical in nature. With an aging population, these calls will increase in the future. For all of these threats, our responders need to have the tools, training and an “effective response force” to be safe and return to their families at the end of the day,” the report said.
The report also found that significant gaps are present in the county-wide EMS system, with times in which there is no ambulance available to respond to emergencies in the West Klickitat area. “There appears to be little to no communication or coordination with WSFD or KCFD3 when this occurs,” the report said, adding that there were more than six days in 2022 when EMS units were not available in the community.
Ultimately the report found that a regional approach to emergency services would benefit the broader community in west Klickitat County.
A unified annual budget would enable consistent and reliable funding, and unified leadership, training and recruiting programs, as well as coordination of facilities and equipment would provide the most coordinated planning and response, and would eliminate redundancies, the report said.
While the task force approved the draft plan, one member, Tao Berman, abstained from the vote, explaining that he felt the task force did not have enough information to determine whether the process to create a regional authority would result in cost savings. He added that the two entities are experiencing a deficit in the number of volunteers available to respond to emergencies, and was not convinced that creating a regional fire district would “mean that all of a sudden, we double our volunteer rate. We may or may not. We just don’t have that data.”
Berman also noted that the White Salmon Fire Department has saved money keeping its current chief, Bill Hunsaker, in that role, but when he retires, the city may have to spend more, adding to the current financial puzzle.
Debate ensued over what the cost to residents will be if regional fire authority recommendation goes through, but without a cost analysis, councilors discussed what the implementation process would be.
Mayor Marla Keethler said that the joint action would be to take the recommendations prepared by the task force and accept its findings to begin the process of exploring a formation of a regional fire authority.
Following approval of the findings, councilors from White Salmon and commissioners from Fire District No. 3 were set to appoint members to a steering committee and discuss a final plan, which will be the guiding document for the formation of the regional fire auhtoity.
A public hearing on the plan is set for May 8, and formal action on the plan is set for May 10.
The committee’s goal is to put a ballot measure seeking voter approval for the formation of the regional fire authority on the ballot for the August 1 primary election.
Commented