Fire district merger advances

The Medical Lake City Council moved one step closer to asking voters to approve a merger of current city fire and EMS services with the 565-square-mile Spokane County Fire District 3 that surrounds Medical Lake at its regular meeting Tuesday, March 19.

With few questions or fanfare, Councilwoman Laura Parsons moved to approve the merger — technically an annexation. Councilman Ted Olson seconded and City Ordinance 1071 was approved on first reading.

The merger must ultimately be approved by both Medical Lake and District 3 voters.

If the council approves the ordinance on second reading at its April 2 meeting, the ordinance, along with a resolution by the District 3 board of directors, which they have already approved, must then be given the nod by Spokane County Commissioners before May 10 for the merger to be placed on an August special election ballot.

If voters agree to the merger, Medical Lake’s current levy rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value would likely be annulled and replaced with District 3’s current levy rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

At the new rate, taxes for a median-priced $238,100 Medical Lake would increase by about $238 per year.

According to an explanatory document to the City Council written by City Administrator Doug Ross, the annexation would have an overall positive affect on the city’s budget.

The city would have the option of eliminating its current EMS levy “which would make sense,” Ross wrote. In that case the city would lose $239,295 in tax funding. But it would save $283,691 in fire department operating costs, with a net savings of $44,396.

In a March 15 email to Ross, District 3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach clarified the fire districts stated commitment to house at least two firefighters at the current Medical Lake fire station, but not overnight until adequate sleeping quarters could be built.

“Living accommodations will need to be established within the current fire station,” Rohrbach wrote. “It should generally be understood that the construction process will take time to complete, but that Fire District 3 would begin the process immediately upon annexation.”

In the interim, nighttime calls would be dispatched from SCFD3’s Station 33 at Four Lakes.

Rohrbach reiterated District 3’s guarantee that it would respond to 100 percent of all calls generated in Medical Lake in his email.

The current all-volunteer Medical Lake Fire Department was unable to respond to over one-quarter of its calls in 2018.

All of Medical Lake Fire Department’s fire engines, other apparatus and equipment would “be assumed” to transfer to District 3.

Rohrbach has also said that all existing MLFD volunteers would have the opportunity to become members of District 3.

In other council business, Parsons, the chair of the city Finance Committee, reported that the city would be shifting its business licensing system to the state Department of Revenue system in 2020.

“The idea being one-stop shopping,” Ross clarified.

The system would allow business to manage all business licensing needs from one portal.

Councilwoman Jessica Roberts, chair of the Public Works Committee, reported there was significant work scheduled for the coming construction season, including re-paving of the lake trail that “will happen sooner than later.” Some costs may be reimbursed by the state, she said.

Normal spring work is, such as lake pumping of snowmelt and street sweeping, is ongoing, Roberts reported.

The council approved two amended contracts with T-Mobile that allowed the cell phone provider to continue to maintain its infrastructure on the city’s water tower on Olson Hill: a master lease agreement of $2,500 per month with an automatic annual increase of 3 percent, and a site lease agreement for an additional $2,500 per month. Both are valid for five years.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected]