Monday, March 18, 2024

Local fire district wants, needs levy increase

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Chelan County Fire District 3 is seeking a levy increase, now that the bond that built the fire station is almost paid off. Chelan County Fire District 3 is currently collecting 39 cents per $1,000 of accessed valuation on a bond that was passed in 1997 to build the current fire station.

With the retirement of the bond, CCFD3 Fire Chief Kelly O’Brien said with the historically low levy rate, the board of commissioners thought it was time to ask the public to raise the levy rate to $1 per $1,000.

Currently, taxpayers are paying 45 cents per $1,000 on the bond and general levy rate, which supports operations at the fire district. So this amounts to a 55 cent per $1,000 increase. For a $300,000 home, that would amount to a monthly increase of $14.23.

The current levy rate for Chelan County Fire District 1 in Wenatchee is $1.37 per $1,000. The budget for Wenatchee is $5.6 million. CCFD7 in Chelan is paying 99 cents per $1,000. The budget for Chelan is $1.9 million. The budget for CCFD3 in Leavenworth is $409,602.

“We’re operating at the same level we were in 1996. Twenty years, we’re still operating at that same level, while our workload, fire inspections, calls, number of assets we protect is at an all time high,” O’Brien said. “Leavenworth and the surrounding areas is no longer the same community as 1996. Just in the last year, look at the growth we’re experiencing, subdivisions going in, major hotels, apartment complexes. All that will put more and more impact on our ability to provide basic services.”

CCFD3 protects $1 billion of assessed value within the fire district. O’Brien said the new levy would allow them to hire more firefighters and pay off their indebtedness. Currently, they have $250,00 debt due to replacing equipment.

O’Brien said their equipment must constantly be tested.

“The unique thing about fire apparatus, it has to pass an annual pump test. With ladder trucks, they have to pass a five year re-certification test or you can’t use them anymore. When they get to a point when it can’t withstand the testing requirements, that equipment has to go away and we have to buy newer apparatus,” O’Brien said.

Assistant Fire Chief Glenn Brautaset they are in a very expensive business because of national standards. He said they are getting close to having to replace their breathing apparatus, which will cost close to $200,000 to replace 30 of them.

It is required equipment, O’Brien said. It is their legal responsibility to have that equipment and maintain it at an operational level.

“As of today, we have about 40 operational and volunteer firefighters. It ends up costing $3,000 to $4,000 per person just to get them in their gear. We’re having a difficult time when we’re looking into the crystal ball realizing our total budget today, seeing how the community is changing,” Brautaset said. “It’s not what it was 20 years ago. It’s morphed into something similar to Aspen, Breckenridge or Big Sky. We don’t have the ability to collect sales taxes, which would be great to do because it comes mostly from tourists.”

O’Brien said the community is growing. They are seeing bigger buildings, along with rural and urban development. Town is also very busy, with millions who pass through the community.

That impacts all first responders, O’Brien said, including Chelan County Sheriff and Cascade Ambulance. In terms of how the levy would set the district up for the future, O’Brien said it would allow them to hire two additional full-time firefighters.

Currently, only the chiefs are full time, O’Brien, Brautaset and Bill Horner. This is the same level as it was in 1996.

“Also, during our busiest six months of the year, the summer months, we’re going to add seasonal employees. We have seasonal employees now but they’re only three months in length. We’ll be able to double the amount of time we have on staff. That will really get us through the busiest portion of the tourist season, which coincides with our busiest time in the wildland firefighting season,” O’Brien said.

The fire district would also like to add to their resident program. Currently, there are four residents. They would like to expand that to six. Residents are firefighters who live at the fire station. In lieu of rent, they come up with some fair value for their time.

These are generally individuals trying to find a career in the fire service. Behind the volunteers, they are really the backbone, Brautaset said. However, they are losing residents.

“District 1 offers to pay college tuition as part of the residency. Our residents get $150 a month as stipend for being here. Others are paying upwards of $700 or $1,000,” O’Brien said. “What happens is we’re not competitive with attracting those kids that want to do that. We have to be able to attract members to keep the resident program full.”

Wenatchee Valley College has started a fire science program. O’Brien said they want their resident program to fit around the college’s fire science program.

O’Brien said they also want to develop their drill field, which is where firefighters can practice emergency situations before they go out. They would like to expand what they currently have. Otherwise, firefighters are getting experience on actual incidents, which is not what you want, O’Brien said.

The district would also like to implement a district-wide Firewise program.

“We’re going to do home assessments and commercial building assessments to try and minimize the impact of wildland fire to the community. Even if the fire doesn’t get in to our district, it still has a huge economic impact on the surrounding area. The more we can reduce that impact, the better we all are off,” O’Brien said.

Brautaset said their responsibilities are wide ranging, protecting the downtown core, wildfire, snow rescue, mountain rescue, river rescue.

“The challenges that we have in Leavenworth are very unique, to tag along with 2-3 million visitors per year. You can’t take a cookie cutter model and think it will work that way for Leavenworth. We’re so unique compared to other fire departments in the state,” Brautaset said. “We have these challenges that other places don’t have in Washington state. We thought you need at least one career firefighter for every thousand you serve. How do you do that with all the visitors?”

Because of the tall buildings in Leavenworth, the fire district must maintain a ladder truck, which is unique for a small, rural fire department. A ladder truck is very expensive, O’Brien said, very dangerous to use, requiring an extreme amount of proficiency to be good at it.

Having a working ladder truck is a challenge for a $400,000 department, O’Brien said, but it all ties into insurance ratings. O’Brien said in 2012 and 2013, they were able to lower insurance rates.

He said they dropped rankings all over the district. The city went from a 6 to a 5. In the hydranted areas of the county, it went from an 8 to a 6. In the non-hydranted areas of the county, it went from an 8 to a 7.

On top of that, O’Brien said they get tender credits, which means they can sustain 250 gallons per minute for 30 minutes without a hydrant.

“In doing so, we lower people’s insurance rates. We’re getting to a point with our own levy rate, we’re not going to be able to sustain that lower rate. The possibility exists that we could have layoffs next year,” O’Brien said. “There may be only 2.5 firefighters here on a daily basis.”

Brautaset said he ran into a homeowner who annexed into the fire district and realized a $3,000 yearly savings, due to the rating.

“If we lose one point, the net effect to insurance can be up to $1,000 per point. It can be extreme. When you have a big business spending a lot on insurance, those numbers grow exponentially,” Brautaset said.

In terms of replacing equipment, O’Brien said the new levy would put them in a much more favorable position. He said they would annually be able to put money aside to make down payments on new equipment, when old equipment needs to be replaced.

O’Brien said they do not want to go beyond five years paying for apparatus. Right now, they’re going out 20 years, meaning by the time the equipment is paid off, it is no good.

“We had to lay off a firefighter last year, but our old ladder truck broke and was not fixable. We had to do a stopgap purchase. Luckily, the fire district in Monroe sold us their old one for $35,000, but it has 120,000 miles on it and it is 20 years old,” Brautaset said. “We had to do it. We would risk losing our insurance rating immediately if that ladder truck is not replaced.”

O’Brien said they do not want to layoff personnel to buy equipment. It is not a good way to run a fire department, he said.

“Kelly and the commissioners have been waiting 20 years for that bond to expire so the tax burden wasn’t too much on the taxpayers. It’s here and overdue. The equipment is well used. It’s time to start making an investment for the future,” Brautaset said. “We know for sure this is only the third time in the history of the fire district that we’ve gone out to ask for money. That’s over 75 years. We don’t do like a lot of other junior taxing districts and go out and ask for money every few years.”

The levy election is set for Aug. 1, primary election day. For more information, go to chelanfd3.org.

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

 

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