Airway Heights proceeds with EMS levy expenditures

If you're an Airway Heights resident and you have some questions about how your recently approved emergency medical service levy funds are going to be used, don't worry.

Fire Chief Mitch Metzger has some answers.

In fact, two of those answers are already on duty at the city's fire station. Volunteer firefighters Ian Dillon and Trevor Marks have changed their roles with Airway Heights and become what Metzger terms "call volunteers."

Call volunteers are not traditional volunteers. Dillon and Marks will be paid $150 per day to cover 12-hour shifts at the station, essentially doubling the station staff on days when there are two fulltime career officers on duty, and increasing it by 33 percent when there are four firefighters.

The only stipulation, Metzger said, is call volunteers can only make up to 20 percent of what career firefighters make in salary. Airway Heights' Fire Department is composed of 37 volunteers, only two that live in the city, along with the four, full-time officers.

"In reality, without the volunteers we don't have a fire service," Metzger said.

Dillon and Marks both started as volunteers with the department two years ago. Both live in Spokane, both graduated from Lewis and Clark High School and both went through the same West Plains Fire Academy class together, receiving their Firefighter One certifications, and their emergency vehicle driver's certifications.

Dillon also has a hazardous materials certification. He received emergency medical technician training certification through Airway Heights, and is nationally registered and state licensed.

"I want to do this as a career," Dillon said.

Besides his EMT certification, Marks also completed the crew leader course at the academy, working with new recruits in the course of his studies. Marks said he never considered firefighting until Metzger tried to talk him into going through the academy.

Marks declined at first, and then reconsidered and joined the next available class.

"I never anticipated a spot at Airway Heights," Marks said.

Metzger said having Dillon and Marks on regular shifts enables the department to use its emergency medical response vehicle more, which is less expensive to send on calls than the main attack engine. The EMS vehicle is capable of handling not only medical calls but also accidents and other lower level emergencies.

The department has already seen the benefit of the increased staffing as Dillon and Marks presence during a Jan. 4 shift allowed the department to respond to two calls at the same time.

Metzger said with volunteers like Dillon and Marks, the department will now be able to handle more calls than in the past. Those calls have been steadily increasing, with 1,404 calls in 2015, compared to 1,193 in 2014 and 1,009 in 2013.

While those calls have gone up annually, the department's EMS budget in 2015 was the same as it was in 2013. That changed when Airway Heights voters approved the EMS levy last November, generating over $112,000 in revenue annually over the next six years.

Metzger said another component of the EMS levy funds should hopefully take place soon with the purchase of two new LifePak 12 defibrillator units, replacing those currently in service purchased in 2005. At its Jan. 11 study session, the City Council approved sending a bid of $22,928.30 per unit from AMR, $53,147.38 with tax, to its Jan. 19 meeting for consideration.

Because the first installment of EMS levy funding won't appear in city coffers until May, Metzger said they have moved some money around in the 2016 budget to enable the department to proceed with the personnel and equipment moves sooner.

"We have a pot of money we're going to borrow from basically, and we will then pay that back out of that (EMS levy funds)," he added.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].