Ethan Hoagland
2024 could be a year of tough financial decisions for the Sweet Home Fire District. During the Dec. 19 board meeting, the Sweet Home Fire District’s Board of Directors learned that SHFD’s insurance rates are going up. That’s according to Joel Keesecker, owner of Keesecker Insurance. Keesecker informed the board that due to a rise in claims statewide, the district should “budget for an average contribution increase of around 13.5%.”
But the district has options to mitigate that increase. By completing classes and training, members of the district and board can get a 10% credit applied to the coverage costs.
Keesecker said the district has checked those boxes, and with the credit, the “projected premium is $48,145.”
After accounting for those factors, the district is facing a lower contribution increase of about 9% instead of 13.5%, according to Keesecker.
“I mean, there’s so many factors that brought this whole perfect storm together, with the inflation,” Keesecker said. “I’ve never in my wildest dreams imagined that you’d have to schedule an appointment with a body shop just to get an estimate.”
Keesecker and Fire District Chief Nick Tyler used a claim from 2019 to illustrate how much costs have risen. The claim was for $151,386 to replace a medic unit.
“That was the replacement cost of the medic unit in 2019,” Keesecker said. “So what’s the replacement cost of that same unit today?”
“$350 [thousand] plus,” Tyler responded. “To put that in better context, it wasn’t that long ago that that was the price of a fire [truck] that you could get 20 years out of.”
“One vehicle and we’re in the hole,” Board President Dawn Mitchell said.
Fire district eyes bond for new equipment
During the board meeting, Chief Tyler presented members with a list of equipment and vehicles needed by SHFD, which could be covered by a bond. Tyler said the district is looking to get two new medic units, two new type six fire engines (trucks intended to fight wildfires), a type one chipper and new radios.
“For just the equipment, it’s $1.8 million,” Tyler said. According to Tyler, if Sweet Home voters maintained the current bond levy of 37 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, the district could bring in $2.5 million over seven years, or $3 million in 10 years. Sweet Home voters approved the current six-year bond levy in 2016. SHFD just recently made the final payment on that bond. That vote could take place during the May 2024 election.
But before that, the board needs to approve a resolution for the bond measure, which Tyler hopes to have prepared for the board soon.
Radios proved a top concern for board members and Tyler alike.
“We currently have radios that are over 20 years old,” he said. “Some hand-me-downs from Albany Fire and some hand-me-downs from Polk County Fire.
“I definitely have lost sleep over our current radio situation,” Tyler added.
Radios alone could cost the district “three quarters of a million dollars,” according to Tyler. Recently, the district applied for an assistance to firefighters grant, or AFG, that would have covered $706,000 for a new radio system, but the district was denied. Tyler said district employees will have to watch a webinar about grant denials before they’ll learn why SHFD wasn’t approved.
SHFD has other options to save a few bucks when getting new radios. For example, Tyler said he’s considering a tier system that would prioritize certain radios to the district personnel who would use them the most.
The type one chipper is another piece of equipment of particular interest to Tyler because it can help mitigate wildfire risks. Christian Whitfield, manager of the district’s Community Wildfire Risk Reduction Program, can go out and assess a person’s property for risk, but without a chipper, helping them reduce that danger is a challenge.
“So if you think about the situation we’re in with Christian Whitfield’s position, we can go out currently and do house assessments for people. ‘You need to get rid of this field.’ We have no mechanism for helping them with that,” Tyler said. “On top of other desires, that type one chipper will help with that.”
Tyler could bring more concrete bond plans to the board for the January 2024 meeting.
“We still have a lot of time,” he said.
Two resolutions approved
In other business, the board approved two different resolutions during the December meeting.
First, the board tackled a resolution to adopt the 2023 Public Contracting Rules. They gave it unanimous approval.
Next, the board approved the Federal Grant Procurement Policy. That approval means SHFD can get started on seeking new grants.
Part time office job filled
Tyler took the board off the agenda for a moment to announce SHFD had hired Jessica Swenson to a part time office position. For some in the Sweet Home community, that name might sound familiar. Swenson is the mother of Kennedy Swenson, who was injured in a jet ski accident that claimed the life of her friend Zach Maynard.
When it comes to other recruitment and retention, Tyler said he’s seeing a lot of interest in SHFD from the high school.
Next meeting moved up
To accommodate schedules, the board of directors voted to move up their January meeting from Jan. 16 to Jan. 23, 2024.