After going two years without raises, firefighters, paramedics and other non-management employees of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District are getting cost-of-living bumps in their pay.
The fire district board on Monday approved cost-of-living raises of 3.5 percent for 2018 and then 2.9 percent for 2019. It will go to staff who are still with the district.
The district did not give raises to its professional staff in 2018 or 2019 because they had voted to unionize in August 2018 and the board was waiting for results of the initial contract.
But negotiation sessions were delayed repeatedly and then went slowly because of scheduling issues. Frustrated, two firefighters petitioned the state last October to withdraw from the union. A vote in December decertified the union.
So Monday the district board retroactively awarded the cost of living increases. Professional staff are still eligible for salary increases based on upcoming performance evaluations.
After an evaluation, the board also gave district administrator Frankie Petrick a 5 percent raise. She is paid $82,000 a year.
In other business the board:
- Received an application from Drew Tracy of Yachats, a former Maryland police official, for a vacant seat on the board. It plans to interview him at its Jan. 27 meeting and could swear him in then. Tracy ran for the board last May, but came in second to A’Lyce Ruberg, who resigned in October after accusations she lied in the Lincoln County voters pamphlet.
- Agreed to continue working with neighbors on the north side of the new station to shield them from nighttime lights by installing more window blinds on the north side of the station. It has already cut lighting on its long driveway leading from U.S. Highway 101 to the station and made other adjustments inside the building.
- Heard that landscaping along Highway 101 will be finished this month and the entrance sign’s lights installed so motorists can see the entrance at night.