Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District Board will ask voters to approve a 10-year, $1.8 million bond on Nov. 7 to purchase four pieces of apparatus.
At the regular board meeting on July 18, the board approved the bond to be submitted to voters. The board agreed to a 35-cent tax rate per $1,000 of valuation.
On a 10-year bond, a homeowner with property worth $100,000 would pay $35 additional in property taxes per year.
The district proposes buying four new vehicles and approximately $300,000 in equipment to outfit the vehicles.
“We feel an equipment bond is the only feasible way for the district to upgrade our apparatus to meet the growing needs of the Sweet Home community,” SHFAD President Don Hopkins said. “The city of Sweet Home and the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District is experiencing growth we have not seen in many years.
“Several hundred new homes have been either built or approved to be constructed in the near future. This growth requires the district to be proactive and prepare for our new challenges.”
He said the majority of the new residences “are much larger,” and require fire apparatus capable of handling multiple types of fire responses and a variety of terrains.
“We are operating with an aging fleet of fire apparatus, requiring constant upkeep, costing the district thousands of dollars annually,” Hopkins said. “The addition of four pieces of fire apparatus will meet our ISO (insurance rating) need so we can maintain insurance rates and give the citizens and firefighters of the community 20 to 25 years of dependable firefighting equipment.”
The ISO (Insurance Services Office) is the organization that rates cities and fire departments based on water supply, fire apparatus, fire training and personnel numbers, Hopkins said. The ISO’s rating determines the cost of commercial and residential fire insurance throughout the nation.
An August 2005 ISO rating report indicated the district needed to make some improvements to maintain its current rating, Hopkins said. If the district fails to meet those requirements within a year, ISO can and probably will raise Sweet Home’s rating, resulting in higher insurance rates for Sweet Home citizens.
Among the ISO’s requirements, one was to improve water supply to rural areas and another was for the district to acquire an aerial apparatus to meet firefighting needs for commercial and institutional structures, Hopkins said.
Among the equipment the district proposes is a structural engine with a light tower and foam system, costing approximately $375,000; a type-one engine with pump-and-roll capabilities, serving a dual role for structural and wildland fires, costing approximately $280,000; a type-two pumper-tender with a fire-rated pump capable of structural firefighting in rural areas, costing approximately $250,000; and an aerial truck with fire-rated pump and tank, costing about $600,000.
The type-two engine will help fill a void in rural water supply capabilities in Cascadia, Holley and Crawfordsville, Hopkins said. The aerial apparatus will provide and address many safety issues for firefighters in rescues and accessibility to roofs. It also will give firefighters an elevated fire stream capability for commercial, industrial, institutional and residential fires that it doesn’t possess.
In some situations, such as fires at old mills, over the past few years, Sweet Home has had to wait for aerial apparatus to arrive from Lebanon or Albany, resulting in large dollar loss fires to the community, Hopkins said.
This type of apparatus would have a pump and water tank making it capable of responding first on all types of structure fires.
The district would replace a 1971 Western States 2,000-gallon type-one engine, which no longer meets standards for structural firefighting, Hopkins said.
“It is grossly underpowered for our terrain, and annual maintenance cost far outweighs the value of the vehicle,” he said. “This unit could be sold, however, to a local logger and meet their needs on a landing.”
The district has been able to budget money for ambulance replacement every two years, but it is incapable of setting aside money for fire apparatus under the district’s current tax rate, Hopkins said. “Not too many years ago, we were able to rotate our ambulances on a three-year rotational basis. Now, with the large additional volume, we need to adjust that replacement schedule to purchase a new ambulance every two years. The district has been putting over 40,000 miles a year on the first-out ambulance.”
The fire department, then part of the city, last purchased an engine in 1996, and before that in 1991.
The district has been able to purchase equipment, but it has not been new, Hopkins said. The district also has added three new firefighter-paramedics in the last five years since the district was formed, costing the district more money, he said.
“What we anticipated five years ago is not necessarily true now. We didn’t anticipate, at that time, this growth.”
The board of directors and district personnel believe that an equipment bond is the only feasible way to upgrade apparatus to meet the growing need of the community, Hopkins said.
“We cannot continue to let aging fire apparatus and its maintenance drain funding that could be used in other areas. We also cannot depend on surrounding fire departments to come to our aid and leave their own districts short on resources each time we don’t have appropriate apparatus to extinguish a fire quickly and safely.”
Tax revenue from the bond would not be available until the end of 2007.
In other business, the board:
– Approved a contract with paramedics, retroactively granting a 3-percent raise for the 2005-06 fiscal year, a 3-percent raise for 2006-07 and a 1-percent raise in January. The salary increases were also granted to non-represented personnel.
The district also went to an insurance arrangement where employees pay 10 percent of monthly premiums. In the past, employees paid a flat share of their premium.
The overall cost to employees and the district went down this year, Hopkins said. They switched plans and have now formed a committee to examine insurance plans.
The contract was approved for three years, the final year being 2007-08; but the contract will be reopened for salaries only.
– Appointed Hopkins to continue as president, Dave Redden as vice president and Elmer Riemer as secretary-treasurer.