By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Medical Lake citizens asked more questions of the City Council on Feb. 17 about how talks are progressing in regard to the city getting a full-time fire department, and according to officials, talks are about all there is to report at this time.
Concerns and stories from citizens about the city's all-volunteer service having missed a few emergency calls have been talked about a lot at recent council meetings, and Medical Lake City Administrator Doug Ross said he's to the point he's ready to stop debating the subject because the city isn't financially in a place to change the situation as fast as citizens want it fixed.
“I don't see how the city can afford it especially with the economic times we're facing. I seriously can't tell you where the money would come from,” Ross said.
Medical Lake resident Annette Lewis said she knew the subject had been a topic of debate, but wanted to know if all the recent talk was amounting to any change.
“What I've been seeing…it seems we're only open to having a full-time 24-hour fire department. Why not look into something that at least had daytime coverage, because that's when most of the calls are going to happen,” Lewis said.
Councilman Jeff King responded saying the reason the city is leaning toward 24/7 coverage is because of the complaints about absences and missed calls.
“You truly must have someone always available or there will always be that risk of something getting missed. You want to solve the whole problem (of missed calls), and the problem facing the city right now is finding the funding needed to getting that full-time coverage,” King said.
Earlier in the month, officials provided estimations on what the costs would be for a full-time department with 24-hour response using figures from 2008 salary and benefits statistics from three local cities with populations comparable to Medical Lake.
Ross said no money is available in the 2009 fiscal budget for the salaries they'd have to pay full-time firefighters who would have to be on duty around the clock.
Mayor John Higgins said there's nothing secret about the city's talks with neighboring fire districts and agencies in exploring options for full-time service. Cities such as Rockford and Deer Park do not maintain their own fire departments, and contract services through Spokane County.
Lewis asked if the city had talked at all to Spokane County Fire District 3 on the subject. Ross said talks with District 3, and Cheney's Fire Department are ongoing. Ross added officials want to come up with a plan that doesn't exclude its own volunteer fire department, or the services they provide to the community.
“They're a very tight knit group,” he said, adding Medical Lake also runs the least amount of service calls than any other county municipality with its own fire service.
Introducing a brand new service the city has never had during its existence isn't financially possible at this time, but even if it were, Higgins added, the transition still wouldn't happen overnight.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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