By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS – When the five-member board for the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District meets Monday it will be operating under its first goals in a decade and renewed issues between the fire district and the nonprofit ambulance service it staffs.
The board is also facing the impending departure of Donald Tucker, who submitted his resignation for health reasons in October but said he would stay on if needed to break a possible tie vote in selecting his replacement. Tucker was first elected in 2019.
The board’s regular monthly meeting is at 10:30 a.m. Monday in the conference room of its main station on the north edge of Yachats.
Newly appointed board member Doug Myers has been pushing the board for months to create short- and long-term goals for the district, administrators and the board. It’s something the board had not done since creating a strategic plan in 2013 and which Myers said last month consisted “mostly of boilerplate language and listed three goals without completing objectives on how to complete the goals.”
Myers has homes in Yachats and central Oregon and was appointed to the board in February. He is a retired battalion chief for Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, the state’s largest fire district, and also a volunteer captain with the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District.
Myer first brought up goal setting to the board in August and then got agreement in September for an hour-long session before its October meeting. Two board members – chair Katherine Guenther and longtime member Ed Hallahan — warned Myers in August about the potential to get too far into operational issues.
“This is my biggest challenge – to stay out of administrative level details,” Myers said then. “I’m a fix-it guy. But the board having goals is part of our policy. The board should be doing this.”
Hallahan eventually agreed that setting goals could help the board refine the budget and aid the district in three years when it likely will seek another increase in a tax levy. The district struggled with financial issues for years but got voters to approve larger levies in 2022 and 2023 that put it on much better footing and enough to have a substantial cash carryover for 3-5 more years.
In October the board agreed to short-term goals that include replacing tires on two engines that are older than 10 years; completing repairs to its substations on Corona Court in Waldport and up the Yachats River; implementing a virtual private network communications system; establishing and implementing a safety committee and a civil service commission, and examining and possibly updating its agreement with South Lincoln Ambulance.
Myers said the board should review progress on the goals each quarter, December, March, June and September.
Fire district administrator Frankie Petrick asked during the October discussion if the board was developing “things you’d like me to do?”
“So I’m clear … should we stop doing what we’ve been doing the last 50 years?” she asked.
Myers replied that the goal setting is just a way for the board and administrators to plan better.
“It’s a process so we have an understanding and a plan before the budget is presented,” he said. “I’m looking at more planning.”
Before administrators create a proposed 2025-26 budget, Myers also urged the board to create long term goals covering safety, finances, personnel, facilities, communication, equipment and opportunities with other departments.
$6 million lawsuit issues
The fire district board is also facing issues with a $6 million lawsuit against it and South Lincoln Ambulance and how to deal with its two administrators – Petrick and Shelby Knife – who are also secretary and president of the nonprofit South Lincoln Ambulance.
The district and ambulance company are being sued for $3 million each by the mother of a Waldport woman killed in a January collision with the ambulance. Two days after the lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the ambulance company filed notice that the fire district was responsible for any awards levied against it because the district provided staffing for the ambulance.
The ambulance nonprofit is being represented by a Seattle law firm; the district by lawyers for the Small District Association of Oregon.
The fire board has not discussed the lawsuit since a notice of tort claim was filed in February and most board members found out the district was being sued when contacted by YachatsNews for a story last month.
The board may hold an executive (closed) session as part of its regular meeting Monday to discuss the lawsuit and will need to decide whether Petrick or Knife will be allowed to participate or attend since they have dual roles — as the fire district’s administrators and as board members of the ambulance nonprofit.
This lawsuit seems to have some serious problems. Nether occupant of the Kia were wearing seat belts, the airbags had apparently been disabled and the driver was found to have methamphetamine on her person.
Yet, the ambulance driver was completely in the wrong, seat belts or not, for pulling out without proper warning according to Oregon Law and causing the accident.
The long-term issue is whether those who enjoy the “discount” of the privately owned local ambulance service are willing to be financially responsible for these issues, such as this lawsuit. Most of the 9-1-1 calls are from tourists and tend to involve the ambulance service, yet it is the locals who pay the bills. Every time an ambulance is busy with these calls, the personnel are not available for a fire call, for they wear both hats.
Isn’t it time we separated out these two services and have the ambulance service rent space at the fire station, provide and cover the expenses and responsibilities of their own personnel, rather than using the Yachats fire department and citizens’ tax dollars? I’ve been saying this for years!
I’m not sure how the ambulance works here, but I am from a full-time department and worked for 25 years as a firefighter and paramedic. Our ambulance is not free, it is billed to the person’s insurance company unless, of course, the person doesn’t have insurance. Even then, our city collects some of the fees to recuperate monetary expenses.
I’d like to hear the whole story before pointing fingers. I’ve heard that lights were on but sirens were not? An ambulance looks vastly different from the side vs the front or back which is much more adorned with emergency lights. So, if the ambulance was sideways and it was rainy or foggy day?
Regardless a life was lost and numerous others will never be the same. What we need to do is prevent this in the future. Lights that come on by the highway when the doors open and signs that warn the public and tourists?
The conflict of interest is so obvious. The district is in a contract that supplies employees for a privately owned ambulance service owned by the administrator. Now the attorneys for the ambulance are essentially saying the district will be responsible for any judgment against them? Hopefully the district get good advice to place people on administrative leave.