By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Money issues again roiled a meeting of the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District board this week, as members rejected a request to buy – sight unseen – a used fire engine, make time-of-service contributions to two longtime volunteers, and requested that its budget committee get more involved in the district’s financial planning.
The district is struggling financially, the last four years taking out a line of credit to pay operating costs in the spring and summer until it gets property taxes in the fall. It drew $76,000 from a new $550,000 line of credit in March to pay February’s bills.
So board members expressed surprised Monday when administrator Frankie Petrick and board member Ed Hallahan asked the board to approve a $25,100 bid for a used fire engine from the Camano Island Fire Department in Washington state.
In previous meetings the board had been told it had about $6,000 in its equipment replacement fund. On Monday, Petrick said there was $26,000 – including a recent $10,000 donation from South Lincoln Ambulance. The ambulance service is a separate nonprofit staffed by Yachats firefighters; Petrick and assistant district administrator Shelby Knife are two of its five board members.
Petrick and Hallahan said the Camano Island engine would replace the 50-year-old engine at its Yachats River substation, which has a leaking tank and a failing pump and can’t be used to fight fires, said Hallahan. It is being stored there to satisfy insurance requirements.
Petrick told the board that no one had gone to Washington to inspect the engine, but had seen pictures of it and talked to administrators there. Neiither she nor Hallahan offered any other information about the engine, including its age, specifications, and whether it needed any work. That also surprised board members.
The request turned into a longer discussion about another engine stored at the district’s other small substation on Corona Court, just south of the Waldport city limits. That station and engine is also there to satisfy insurance requirements and was only used once in 2020.
Without the two substations – even with old engines in them – the fire insurance policies for people near them would “almost double,” said board member Donald Tucker.
“We don’t have a functioning engine at each station,” Hallahan said. “When ISO (Insurance Services Office, which provides rating information to insurance companies) finds out a bunch of peoples’ fire insurance are going up.”
Board member Drew Tracy said he was reluctant to bid on the used fire engine – and then spend more money to equip it – without first getting a better handle on district finances.
“Don’t we need to get our overall finances back in sync?” he asked.
Hallahan’s motion to bid on the engine died for lack of a second.
More robust budget process?
Petrick told the board she is beginning to work on the 2021-22 budget and to send her ideas on any issues and how to reduce expenses. That led board chair Katherine Guenther to suggest seeking new budget committee members – there are five in addition to the board – who may have greater financial expertise and to meet more than once a year.
“I’d like to see it move into something that’s more than a one-day-a-year commitment,” Guenther said. “I’d like it to become a little more robust than in the past.”
The district’s finances also led the board to turn down a request from Petrick to have the district contribute to a length-of-service program for volunteers – of which only she and Knife currently qualify. The program follows state guidelines and is an incentive to keep people volunteering.
In addition to being the district’s paid administrator, Petrick has been a volunteer for 45 years and the volunteer chief since 2004 – a very unusual arrangement. Because of that she qualified for a district contribution of $3,875. Knife, who has been a volunteer for 10 years, would have received $900.
As district administrators, neither Petrick nor Knife are covered under the district’s retirement plan offered to firefighters.
The board first heard of the request in December and until this week had put off a decision at each previous board meetings. Two months ago, the board – again citing financial issues — also turned down a motion by Hallahan to give Petrick a 7.5 percent raise in her $87,000 a year salary.
“I guess because we have a negative balance, I don’t see that it’s the time to do this,” said longtime board member Betty Johnson. “I would say ‘No’.”
In other business, the board:
- Will have Hallahan and Tracy again start meeting with Petrick and Knife to sort out if and when it should ask for an increase in one of its two operating levies that have to be approved by voters;
- Have Guenther and Knife meet to develop a solicitation for real estate agents to handle the sale of its former station in downtown Yachats. The district is counting on the sale to patch a major hole in its finances.
- Approved firefighter/paramedic Joe Schwab to begin sleeping overnight at the Yachats River station during his off hours if he agreed to help respond to calls in that area.