A joining of fire forces

The clock is ticking for the Medical Lake City Council to decide to ask voters to consider merging the city’s struggling all-volunteer fire department with Spokane County Fire District 3.

Speaking before the council and spectators that included board members from SCFD3, Medical Lake Fire Chief Jason Mayfield suggested there are three options for the council to consider.

One is do nothing — knowing that 911 calls will continue to be missed by the Medical Lake Fire Department.

The all-volunteer department was unable to respond to over one-quarter of the calls they received in 2018, according to city records.

American Medical Response, a for-profit company, and SCFD3, who has a mix of full-time and volunteer firefighters, handled the missed calls.

“Last year to say the wheels fell off is a little bit of an understatement,” Mayfield said in reference to staffing issues.

He reminded the council that the department has long been struggling with a lack of staffing; asking an all-volunteer department to cover over 600 calls per year “is definitely a lot,” he said.

Another option is to ask Medical Lake voters to support a fire levy — in addition to the EMS levy currently on the books — that could generate upwards of $360,000 per year, according to Mayfield, who seemed to downplay the local levy option.

“Anyone who has a business can attest that you can eat up $360,000 really fast in salaries and benefits,” he said.

He said doing so would tackle some of the problem, but not everything, such as the department’s aging fleet of vehicles and apparatus that are on average 27 years old.

A third option — the preferred option, Mayfield said — is to merge with SCFD3, a direction many fire departments across the state are going.

“It’s a trend I think we’ll see continue,” he said, “and probably the best route not only for Medical Lake, but the majority of fire service in this county.”

Assuming a merger happened, SCFD3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach told the council his department would respond to 100 percent of the calls it received from Medical Lake.

SCFD3 has 10 stations scattered across its 565-square-mile area of responsibility that completely surrounds Medical Lake. It’s currently staffed by 124 “part-paid on-call” volunteer firefighters and 12 full time career firefighters, with more planned to be hired, Rohrbach said.

Part of that staffing will include placing two firefighters in at Station 33 in Four Lakes, the closest SCFD3 station to Medical Lake, which has between a four and five minute response time to the city.

Current Medical Lake volunteer firefighters would be absorbed by SCFD3 as part of the merger, according to Rohrbach.

There is also the possibility of staffing the Medical Lake fire station with two full time firefighters as well, something Rohrbach called “two-and-two,” that would further reduce response times.

While Rohrbach said SCFD3 was “willing to consider” keeping the Medical Lake fire station, construction of a new fire station near the intersection of Craig Road and State Route 902 is also a future possibility.

Any merger would require a simple majority vote of both Medical Lake and SCFD3 voters.

It would also come with an increase in taxes for Medical Lake voters.

If approved, the merger would annul Medical Lake’s current levy rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, and revert to SCFD3’s levy, which is $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

SCFD3’s current annual budget is $3.1 million Rohrbach said.

But first the City Council must approve an ordinance supporting the merger and to place it on the ballot for consideration by voters

The SCFD3 board has already approved a resolution to support annexation, according to Rohrbach.

If both organizations approve of annexation, the idea must then past muster with Spokane County Commissioners before May 10 for the merger to be placed on a special elections ballot in August.

The merger would go into effect on Jan. 1 2020, if approved by voters.

In the interim, Rohrbach said that SCFD3 was willing to enter into a service contract with Medical Lake to “bridge the gap” and offer its services between the merger’s approval and implementation.

In other business, there will be considerable construction work this summer, City Administrator Doug Ross reported.

The city will be spending $500,000 to construct the intertie connection with the City of Spokane water system, a $150,000 walking trail resurfacing project is planned, and a $500,000 state grant will fund various street improvements, including asphalt repair and storm drainage work.

“It will be a busy summer,” Ross told the council.

The council also voted to approve a franchise renewal with Avista, allowing the utility provider to continue using Medical Lake rights of way for its utility infrastructure placement.

And Mayor Shirley Maike made a point of clarifying to the council the circumstances surrounding Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ town hall meeting held at City Hall on Feb. 21, an event that took many council members by surprise.

“We heard that Rep. McMorris Rogers would be in Medical Lake at the last minute,” Maike explained, telling council members that city staff did their best to inform them as soon as possible of the event.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected]