Council hears Fire Department budget request

CHENEY – Fire Chief Tom Jenkins discussed the 2022 budget proposal with the City Council during a Nov. 23 meeting.

The presentation was designed to recap the years emergency services while preparing the council’s vote to approve the new 2022 operating budget.

Jenkins presented a litany of data recapping fire and emergency services over the last year and how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape.

Jenkins said this past year he’s seen things that he’s never seen before in his 28-year career and he surmised that many were related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergency medical services are experiencing an unprecedented shortage because people are scared of being subjected to COVID sick patients day-after-day, he said.

Data backs up these fears as firefighter deaths were the highest they’ve ever been since 1970 with the exception of 9/11.

Nationally, there were 140 deaths this past year and 78 of them were due to COVID-19, according to a report from the National Fire Protection Association.

This year saw an increase in the number of emergency calls locally, he said.

There were 1,529 emergency calls in 2020 and there has been 1,835 emergency calls, so far, in 2021. This means there was a 21% increase in service calls, but the entire county of Spokane saw their service calls increase 18.6%.

The county’s overall increase in service calls are likely due to COVID-19 and a much more prevalent fire season that shows no signs of slowing down, he said.

The 2022 emergency and fire services budget is similar to the 2021 budget.

This year’s budget increased by $15,700.

Chief Jenkins also talked about the training goals and department aspirations heading into the next year. Some of these aspirations come in the form of discretionary budget items like software and tablet upgrades.

They also want to give the volunteer fire fighters the same level of training as the full-time crew gets because they’re job essentially carries the same risks.

The largest portion of the discretionary budget requests is the amount of overtime allotted for the firefighters on payroll.

The $152,000 of firefighter overtime (not including the new firefighter) is by far the most expensive portion of the discretionary budget proposal and that directly affects the service call increase as well as fire seasons becoming worse in recent years, he said.

There was also a $42,000 request to finish the renovation of the apparatus bay at the fire station.

Jenkins detailed the training he wants to put his staff through to prepare for the new year. This includes 6,000 hours of fire and EMS training for the new normal presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fire Marshal’s education and prevention efforts were highlighted which includes completing an interdisciplinary science project at Eastern Washington University, working on inspection requirements, attending the county fire marshal meeting, and other projects that aid with Washington Surveying and Rating Bureau requirements.

Jenkins highlighted some accomplishments from this last year that include renovating the department’s sleeping quarters and negotiating a new three-year contract for County Ground Ambulance Services.

The department also responded to and helped quell local, state, and regional wildfires.

In 2022, the department will have focus points such as getting a new brush truck via the Assistance of Fire Fighter Grant, which it didn’t’ get this past year.

They also want to continue to modernize the department’s pre-fire plans, continue joint training endeavors with west plains fire departments, enhance community outreach programs, and maintain enduring partnerships throughout the region.