Proposals to remedy volunteer recruitment problem include a per-call fee, annexation of city services and increases in the city's EMS levy
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Spokane County Fire District 3 officials are urging the city of Medical Lake to find a way to respond to their own emergency calls instead of regularly relying on outside services.
“Short term, it's no big deal, but when it becomes the response standard for us to go and take care of Medical Lake's calls we need to do something different,” District 3 Fire Chief Bruce Holloway said. “They help us out too, but bottom line is our taxpayers can't continue to subsidize Medical Lake.”
For 15 years the city and district have held a mutual aid agreement allowing for assistance across jurisdictional boundaries in many situations, such as a disaster or multiple-alarm fire, as well as automatic aid from the nearest fire station regardless of boundaries. But nothing in the agreement suggests one agency should act as an on-call primary emergency responder for another agency, Holloway said.
According to Medical Lake Fire Chief Jeff Estes, over the past few years there have been frequent dispatch requests to add Fire District 3 as the sole responder during weekday hours when Medical Lake has limited or no staff on duty. Despite ramped up recruitment efforts since he became chief last winter, the city's all-volunteer department has struggled to cover day shifts because most volunteer firefighters have full time jobs.
“If we were using Fire District 3 on occasion, I'm OK with that, but this takes assets out of commission in their own area,” Estes said. “It's a small district with a large service area – they need all the assets they can get.”
Instead of relying on District 3, Estes suggests offering premium pay to day-staff volunteers who would perform other tasks around the station when not on calls, although City Administrator Doug Ross said a total estimated yearly price tag of about $52,000 could make this cost-prohibitive. The city currently budgets about $300,000 a year for the fire department.
Estes said a compromise needs to be found that takes the strain off District 3 while remaining affordable for the city. “I know we're not going to get 10 full time employees but the city isn't going to get us completely free of charge,” he said. “We need to find a solution that works for all parties.”
Up to now District 3 has provided backup for Medical Lake under the assumption the city was working to find that solution, Holloway said. In a July letter to the District 3 board of fire commissioners, he said city officials assured him more than a year ago that the problem would be addressed as soon as police department issues were taken care of. “The police department was contracted out (to the Spokane County Sheriff's office) more than six months ago and I haven't seen much improvement,” he wrote. “I believe it is time we take action on our part to address the situation.”
The district has three proposals: bill Medical Lake a flat $1,000 fee for in-city calls on which the district is the only responder, annex the city into District 3 or eliminate the mutual aid agreement altogether.
Eliminating services is a poor option, Holloway said. “Although we're not legally required to provide this service to Medical Lake, morally we don't see how that would be a good option for citizens.”
Holloway said charging on a per call basis has proved viable in Spangle as a way to offer some level of city service while offsetting the cost to district taxpayers. Annexation, however, which would need to be initiated by the city and approved by city residents, would do little to solve the root problem of recruitment, he said.
“You've still got to have a volunteer force to be able to deal with incidents there,” he said. “It's not financially feasible for us to have a full time department over there. The folks in Medical Lake have to step up to the plate and help.”
The city is now looking at how it might assist in volunteer firefighter recruitment efforts, which Ross said are now largely done through word of mouth. The city might also ask residents to increase the EMS levy next year or consider contracting with American Medical Response to have paramedics or emergency medical technicians available during the day. Ross said although the AMR price may be high – at a cost of around $30-$40 per hour per person – the company would guarantee coverage of a shift regardless of vacations or sick time.
Because many emergency calls are requests for medical services at Eastern State Hospital, Ross said he has spoken with the state about bypassing the city's fire department in certain situations, as when medical transport is needed, in order to cut down on call volume.
“At this point we're looking at all options and asking the questions,” Ross said, adding that nothing is likely to happen before next year's budget is worked out.
Until then, Estes said he'll no longer call upon District 3 for first response services. In a Sept.19 correspondence to Holloway he wrote, “I choose to stop the practice of ‘adding district 3' when we are short staffed at this time because I view this practice as ethically wrong and believe our city must address the issue of staffing.”
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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