Friday, March 29, 2024

Fire Department looks ahead: Searches for new boat, hires consultant for future planning

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CHELAN -  What good is a rescue swimmer program without a boat or proprietary surface to jump off of?

That’s the question Fire District Commissioner Russ Jones posed to commissioners Bob Gervais and Tom Peters during their regular Chelan Fire District Commissioner meeting on Wednesday, July 12.

The original vessel, Marine 71, was abandoned during the search for 23-year old Donghoon Lee last month after experiencing difficulties. Jones discussed using boats that are already on the water in the interim (including a couple volunteers, un-used rentals that are available at Lakeshore Marina and his own), but they aren’t equipped with rescue gear. Jones and Fire Chief Tim Lemon suggested selling Marine 71 and using that money to recoup the costs for purchasing a new boat.

“If we see a boat that is available in Washington, it would fit our primary need to transport rescue swimmers and fill our gap in the interim if we decided we needed something more elaborate in the future,” Jones said. “Right now we have a rescue team without a proprietary platform.”

Commissioner Gervais said that he was hesitant in acquiring the boat without getting community input. “I’m just not convinced that we should go into it and start a fire rescue (swim) team,” commissioner Gervais stated.

“The thing we’re missing is that we (already) have a boat program, but the boat is useless since it had to be abandoned during the course of a search,” Jones said. “This isn’t something that is a budget increase, we’re just replacing what we have now with something that is safe to be on. I don’t think we are appreciating all the risks that are out there. The Emergency Room docs say there are a lot of accidents out there that people don’t hear about. Those risks are present and we have a responsibility to address (them), at least in the minimal way.”

The Commissioners approved the motion to authorize Jones with $5,000 to purchase a boat and act as an agent of the district.

In an effort to do some long range planning, the commissioners discussed hiring Consultant Bob Merritt of MHC Associates.

“He has 44-years of fire service in Snohomish and Yakima County, has done some consulting work for Manson and Prosser and done a number of studies on both sides of the mountains,” commissioner Peters began. “He starts out by creating a citizens advisory group that works on a vision in the area for what services will look like for the long term and after he follows up to support development of a levy that matches the community vision.”

Peters explained the initial community vision takes six or eight weeks to finish and is done independently from the Commissioners or staff.

“Merritt sequesters a group of citizens and they work through the statement of work, which will come as a report of what should be done in terms of district and services / level of service,” Peters said. “They will dictate where we are headed as an agency. He suggested mid to late September to form the community group, then have a proposal before Thanksgiving. We’ll talk about it, decide what to go forward with and then educate through the media in January, before going for a vote in August.”

Chief Lemon jumped in saying, “the bottom line is the public owns the area and we are in charge of keeping it safe. We are at a catalyst point to go forward five or 10 years or go backward to 2016 staff level.”

The Commissioners approved the motion to hire Merritt for a cost of $14,700, and will begin working on candidates to serve on the community group.

The next Chelan Fire District Commissioner meeting is on Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 4 p.m.

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213

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